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VANROOSBROECK 

GENESIS  OF  CORNEILLE'  S 
MELITE 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


THE  GENESIS  OF 
CORNEILLE'S  MEUTE 


GUST.  L.  VAN  ROOSBROECK 


Krube  Pubusring  Co.  Vintom,  Iowa 


w, 


THE  GENESIS  OF 
CORNEILLE'S  MELITE 


GUST.  L.  VAN  ROOSBROECK 


Kruse  PiDirsHiNG  Co.  Vinton,  Iowa 


Pierre  Corneille  began  his  career  as  a  writer  of  comedy  and 
to  his  comedies  was  due  his  early  reputation  as  a  dramatic  poet. 
Ilare  ecrivain  de  notre   France, 
Qui  le  premier  des  beaux  esprits 
As  fait  revivre  en  tes  ecrits 
L'  esprit  de  Plaute  et  de  Terence; 
exclaimed    Mairet    in    1634,    in    the    complimentary    poems    of 
La  Yeuve  and   Du  Petit- Val  repeats  upon  the  same  occasion: 
Ce  style  familier  non  encore  eiitrepris, 
Ni  connu  de  personne,  a  de  si  bonne  grace, 
I)u  theatre  frangois  change  la  vieille  face, 
Que  la  scene  tragique  en  a  perdu  le  prix. 
His  early  plays  acquired  the  esteem  of  the  court.     In  the 
Examen  of    the  Melite  he    expressly    states    that    his    first  work 
''me  fit  connaitre  a    la    cour",    and    he    repeats    in  the  Excuse 
a  Ariste:    "Mon  vers  charma  la  cour,"     There   exists  evidence 
that  some  of  Corneille 's  early  comedies  were  represented  before 
the  court,  in  1633,  at  Forges   (Normandy),  when  the  king,  the 
queen  and  Richelieu  resided  there  for  some  time.     (1) 

But  the  spectacular  success  of  the  Cid  and  of  the  tragedies 
which  followed  soon,  engrossed  the  attention  of  his  contempor- 
aries just  as  they  have  largely  absorbed  the  attention  of  his 
posterity.  His  first  comedies  were  almost  forgotten,  and  it  be- 
came the  fashion  to  date  his  work  from  his  first  tragedies,  es- 
pecially from  the  Medee  of  1635,  and  to  dismiss  his  early  pro- 
ductions with  a  few  disdainful  words. 

La  Bruyere  asserted:  '*Ses  premieres  comedies  sont  seches,. 
languissantes  et  ne  laissaient  pas  esperer  qu'  il  dut  ensuite  aller 
si  loin."  (2)  Boileau  agreed  with  him:  Tout  son  merite  pour- 
tant  a  1'  heure  qu'  11  est,  ayant  ete  mis  par  le  temps  comme  dans 
un  creuset,  se  reduit  a  huit  ou  neuf  pieces  de  theatre,  qu'  on  ad- 
mire et  qui  sont,  s'  il  faut  ainsi  parler,  comme  le  midi  de  sa 
poe.sie  dont  1'  orient  et  1'  Occident  n'  ont  rien  valu."  (3)  Their 
assertions  were  echoed  by  Voltaire:  "Ses  premieres  comedies 
....sont  a  la  verite,  indignes  de  notre  siecle,  mais  elles  furent 
longtemps  ce  qu'  il  y  avait  de  moins  mauvais  en  ce  genre,  tant 
nous  etions  loin  de  la  plus  legere  eonnaissance  des  beaux  arts." 


re 


(4)  La  Harpe  showed  even  less  condescension:  On  me  dispen- 
sera,  sans  doute,  de  parler  des  premieres  comedies  de  Corneille 
.  .  .  On  se  souvient  seulement  qu'  il  les  a  faites  et  que  sans  rien 
valoir,  elles  valent  mieux  que  toutes  celles  de  son  temps."  (5) 
According  to  Nisard  they  are  only  to  be  read  "through  cur- 
iosity."    (6). 

In  this  way  the  general  perspective  of  Corneille 's  work  was 
altered.  He  was  considered  almost  exclusively  as  a  writer  of 
tragedies  of  the  heroic  cast.  And,  since  he  was  so  superior  to 
his  many  rivals,  he  soon  came  to  stand  alone.  The  notion  of 
Corneille 's  absolute  independence  of  his  surroundings  and  of 
the  literary  efforts  of  his  predecessors  has  been  generally  ac- 
cepted. The  Abbe  d'  Olivet  exclaims:  "Voila  Corneille  qui, 
sans  modele,  sans  guide,  trouvant  I'art  en  lui-meme,  tire  la 
tragedie  du  chaos  oil  elle  etait  parmi  nous."  (7).  For  Nisard 
"an  abyss  separates  Corneille  from  all  that  can  be  called  a  play 
before  him."     (8). 

With  the  publication  of  Taschereau's  Histoire  de  la  Vie  de 
Pierre  Corneille  (1829),  a  reaction  set  in.  His  first  plays  were 
here,  if  not  thoroughly  studied,  at  least  given  some  place  in  his 
work.  But  the  former  attitude  of  mind  toward  Coi-neille  re- 
mained uppermost  in  the  estimation  of  most  critics.  Some  of 
them  studied  his  first  productions  with  the  intention  of  discov- 
ering in  these  early  works  the  unmistakable  signs  of  future 
greatness.  As  a  natural  consequence  they  were  sometimes 
praised  beyond  their  real  merit.  This  has  been  especially  true 
of  his  very  first  play,  of  the  Mclite.  Some  critics  already  per- 
ceived in  this  coup  d'  essai  the  methods,  inventions  and  inno- 
vations of  an  independent  writer  with  almost  revolutionary  ten- 
dencies. The  tradition  that  Corneille  was  inspired  by  an  actual 
event  in  his  own  life  to  write  the  Melite  was  interpreted  as 
meaning  that  he  wrote  the  play  without  taking  inspiration  from 
any  of  his  predecessors  and  contemporaries,  without  going 
through  the  apprenticeship  in  language  and  stage-craft  which 
is  necessary  even  to  the  most  original  genius  of  the  theater.  So, 
for  example,  Roger  Le  Brun:  "Mais  voiei  que  tout  a  coup, 
brusquement,  sur  un  ton  nouveau,  a  la  fois  moins  choquante 
dans  r  esprit  et  dans  la  langue,  presque  epuree,  la  veritable 
comedie  fait  son  apparition.  Sans  bassesse  dans  les  caracteres, 
conime  sans  outrance  dans  1'  intrigue,  elle  reflete,  et  d'  alerte 
fagon,  les  moeurs  de  1'  epoque.     C  est  l'  aurore  de  la  comedie 


moderne;  voici,  en  effet,  Pierre  Corneille  qui  debute  au  theatre, 
apportant  1'  art  ou  il  n'  y  a  encore  que  d'  inforines  ebauches  de 
comedie;  voici  Melite,  premiere  oeuvre  qu'  ait  produite  le  grand 
homme,  (9)  F.  Brunetiere  is  not  far  from  sharing  in  this  opin- 
ion: "Je  crois  que  dans  notre  litterature  classique  elles  (les 
comedies)  sont  longtemps  demeurees  sans  imitateurs,  comme 
elles  etaient  a  pen  pres  sans  niodeles.  Je  erois  qu'  avec  d'  autres 
qualites  elles  ne  sont  pas  moins  originales  en  leur  genre  que  la 
comedie  de  Moliere  et  que  les  Plaideurs  de  Racine. "  (10)  Accord- 
ing to  these  writers,  who  are  spokesmen  for  more,  the  form,  matter 
and  treatment  in  Corneille 's  early  comedies  are  almost  exclus- 
ively the  result  of  the  poet's  unaided  inspiration.  There  seems  to 
be  no  link  betAveen  him  and  the  literature  of  the  time.  In  comedy 
as  well  as  in  tragedy  he  is,  according  to  the  expression  of  Sainte- 
Beuve,  "a  genius  by  instinct,  blind  and  independent." 

Since  this  conception  of  Corneille 's  early  works  is  founded 
largely  upon  the  anecdote  about  the  origin  of  the  Melite,  I  pro- 
pose here  to  examine  in  detail  the  facts  known  about  the  genesis 
of  this  play  and  to  study,  incidentally,  the  relation  of  this 
"coup  d'  essai",  as  Corneille  terms  it,  to  the  contemporary  lit- 
erature. 

To  enable  the  reader  to  follow  the  argument  further  ex- 
pounded, a  resume  of  the  play,  based  on  the  text  of  the  first 
edition,   (1633),  is  here  printed: 

Act  I.  Sc.  1.  Eraste  confides  to  Tircis  how  he  suffers  from 
the  disdain  of  Melite  Avhom  he  loves  and  has  "served."  Tircis 
talks  with  cynical  irony  of  love,  Avomen  and  the  "burdens"  of 
marriage.  Eraste  defies  hini  to  maintain  this  attitude  after  hav- 
ing beheld  the  beauty  of  Melite.  Sc.  2.  The  tAvo  friends  visit 
Melite  Avho  treats  ironically  the  love  declarations  of  Eraste. 
Sc.  3.  Tircis  confesses  to  Eraste  that  he  is  not  insensible  to  the 
charms  of  Melite  but  disclaims  any  intention  of  paying  court  to 
her.  Alone,  he  soliloquizes  that  in  loA^e  affairs  friendship  does 
not  count.  Sc.  4.  Love  scene  betAveen  Philandre  and  Cloris, 
sister  of  Tircis.  Sc.  5.  Tircis  interrupts  and  rails  at  their  love 
making. 

Act  II.  Sc.  1.  Eraste  complains  of  the  favor  Avhich  Tircis 
seems  to  be  receiving  from  Melite.  Sc.  2.  firaste  meets  Melite 
and  reproaches  her  for  her  intimacy  with  Tircis.  Sc.  3.  firaste, 
in  despair,  resoh^es  to  get  Tircis  out  of  his  Avay  by  preparing 


forged  love-letters  from  Melite  to  Philandre.  Sc.  4.  Eraste 
secures  by  a  gift  the  aid  of  Cliton,  neighbor  of  Melite.  Se.  5. 
Tircis  has  composed  a  sonnet  for  Melite  which  he  intends  to 
give  to  Eraste ;  he  shows  it  to  his  sister  Cloris  who  recognizes 
his  love  for  the  heroine  of  the  play.  Sc.  6.  Eraste  gives  Cliton 
the  forged  letter  of  Melite  to  Philandre,  suitor  of  Cloris.  Sc.  7. 
Cliton  delivers  the  letter  to  Philandre ;  while  he  is  reading  this 
letter  Eraste  appears ;  discloses  the  love  of  Tircis  for  Melite  and 
encourages  Philandre.  Sc.  8.  Tircis  brings  his  sonnet  on 
Melite  to  Eraste,  who  refuses  to  accept  it  while  Melite  Avatches 
the  maneuver  from  a  window.  Sc.  9.  Melite  confesses  to  Tircis 
her  love  for  him. 

Act  III.  Sc.  1.  Philandre  soliloquizes  on  his  love  for 
Melite.  Sc.  2.  Tircis  confides  his  love  for  Melite  to  Philandre 
who  shows  him  the  forged  letters  of  the  heroine  as  a  proof  of 
her  infidelity.  Tircis  challenges  Philandre  who  refuses  to  fight. 
Sc.  3.  Tircis  soliloquizes  on  the  infidelity  of  Melite  and  re- 
solves to  commit  suicide.  Sc.  4.  Cloris  meets  him  and  he  shows 
her  the  forged  letters  he  has  taken  from  Philandre.  Sc.  5. 
Cloris  resolves  to  show  Melite  the  letters  Avhich  she  has  re- 
ceived from  her  brother,  Tircis.  Sc.  6.  Philandre  resolves  to 
get  the  letters  back  from  Tircis.  Sc.  7.  Philandre  meets  Cloris 
who  shows  him  the  letters  which  she  is  about  to  give  to  Melite. 
Sc.  8.     Philandre  goes  to  demand  the  letters  from  Tircis. 

Act.  IV.  Sc.  1.  The  Nurse  counsels  Melite  on  her  conduct 
in  love  matters.  Sc.  2.  Cloris  visits  Melite  and  shows  her  the 
letters.  Melite  denies  having  written  them.  Sc.  3.  Lisis,  a 
friend  of  Tircis  announces  that  the  latter  has  died  of  grief. 
Melite  swoons.  Sc.  4.  Cliton,  Eraste 's  letter-carrier,  arrives; 
he  concludes  that  Melite  is  dead.  Sc.  5.  Eraste  soliloquizes  on 
the  success  of  his  forged  letters.  Sc.  6.  Cliton  informs  him 
that  both  Melite  and  Tircis  are  dead.  Eraste  goes  mad;  he  be- 
lieves himself  in  the  infernal  regions  and  takes  Cliton  for 
Charon.  Sc.  7.  Philandre  seeks  Tircis.  Sc.  8.  The  mad 
:Braste  thinks  he  is  fighting  ghosts  and  demons.  He  takes  Phil- 
andre for  Minos  and  explains  his  deception  of  the  forged  let- 
ters. Sc.  9.  Ravings  of  Eraste.  Sc.  10.  Lisis  informs  Cloris 
that  her  brother  Tircis  is  not  dead. 

Act.  V.  Sc.  1.  Cliton  tells  the  Nurse  of  the  madness  of 
Eraste.  Sc.  2.  Delirium  of  Eraste.  He  takes  the  nurse  for 
Melite  but  finally  recognizes  her  and  comes  to  his  senses.     Sc.  3. 


Philandre  tries,  but  unsuccessfully  to  become  reconciled  with 
Cloris.  Sc.  4.  Tircis  who  has  come  back  and  Melite  rejoice 
over  their  happiness  and  resolve  upon  their  marriage.  Sc.  5. 
Cloris  announces  that  she  has  broken  with  Philandre.  Sc.  6. 
jferaste  appears  and  confesses  his  fault.  He  obtains  his  pardon 
and  the  hand  of  Cloris.  The  nurse  soliloquizes  humorously  upon 
her  faded  charms. 

THE  ArTOBIOGKAFHICAL  ELEMENT    IN    THE  MELITE 

The  autobiographical  element  in  Corneille's  Melite  is  one 
of  the  most  discussed  questions  in  Corneille-research.  The  more 
general  opinion  is  that  his  first  work  is  almost  entirely  inspired 
by  personal  experience;  that  his  later  comedies  are  based 
upon  direct  observation  of  his  surroundings,  whereas  his  trag- 
edies are  a  creation  of  the  intellect  with  little,  if  any,  direct 
influence  from  his  personal  life. 

As  to  the  Melite,  Thomas  Coriieille,  younger  brother  of  our 
poet,  testified  that  the  germ  of  the  play  was  furnished  by  a 
love-adventure  of  Pierre  Corneille :  "Une  avanture  galante  luy 
fit  prendre  le  dessein  de  faire  une  comedie  pour  y  employer  un 
sonnet  qu'  il  avoit  fait  pour  une  Demoiselle  qu'  il  aimoit.  Cette 
piece  dans  laquelle  est  traitee  toute  1'  avanture  et  qu'  il  inti- 
tula  Melite  eut  un  suces  extraordinaire  (11). 

This  passage  seems  to  receive  a  certain  confirmation  in 
verses  which  Pierre  Corneille  wrote  in  1637,  in  the  Excuse  a 
Ariste: 

Ce  que  j'  ai  de  nom  je  le  dois  a  1'  amour. 
J'adorai  done  Philis;  et  la  secrete  estime 
Que  ce  divin  esprit  faisait  de  notre  rime 
Me  fit  devenir  poete  aussitot  qu'  amoureux.     (12). 
On  the  basis,  apparently,  of  these  declarations,  Fontenelle, 
nephew  of  the  poet,  produced  a  statement  which  is  more  cir- 
cumstantial and  precise,  although  different  in  one  respect:     Ac- 
cording to  Fontenelle,  Pierre  Corneille  added  "something"  to 
the  truth,  whereas  Thomas  Corneille  states  that  the  "whole  ad- 
venture" was  reproduced    in    the    play.     Fontenelle  says:     II 
(Corneille)  ne  songeoit  a    rien    moins    qu'  a  la  poesie  et  il  ig- 
noroit  lui-meme  le  talent  extraordinaire  qu'  il  avoit,  lorsqu'  il 
lui  arriva  une  petite  aventure  de  galanterie  dont  il  s'  avisa  de 
faire  une  piece    de    theatre,    en    ajoutant    quelque    chose  a  la 
verite.     On  donnoit  a  Rouen  le  nom  de  Melite  a  la  dame  qui 


avoit  fait  naitre  1'  avanture  qui  faisoit  le  sujet  de  cette  piece." 
(13). 

The  last  sentence  of  this  passage  has  acted  as  a  powerful 
stimulant  upon  the  curiosity  of  later  historians.  In  1738,  the 
abbe  Granet,  editor  of  Corneille's  works,  in  a  commentary  upon 
the  Excuse  a  Ariste,  identifies  the  lady  loved  by  P.  Corneille 
as  a  certain  Mme  Du  Pont,  married  to  a  "maitre  des  comptes" 
of  Rouen.  He  did  not,  however,  give  any  proof  of  his  identifi- 
cation.  (14), 

A  field  so  fertile  could  not  fail  to  bear  some  different  kind 
of  fruit.  At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  Jos.  Andre 
Guiot  brought  forward  another  and  a  contradictory  identifica- 
tion of  Corneille's  Melite.  In  Le  Moreri  des  Normands  he  in- 
troduces Mile  Millet  as  the  prototype  of  the  heroine  who  inspired 
Corneille  in  his  early  years  and  revealed  his  talent  to  the  world : 
"Sans  la  demoiselle  Millet,  tres  jolie  Rouenaise,  Corneille 
peut-etre,  n'  eut  pas  si  tot  connu  1'  amour;  sans  cette  heroine 
aussi,  pent  etre,  la  France  n'  eut  jamais  connu  le  talent  de  Cor- 
neille .  .  .  .  Le  plaisir  de  cette  aventure  determina  Corneille 
a  faire  la  comedie  de  Melite,  ana  gramme  du  nom  de  sa  maitresse. 
(15)  Fifty  years  later  (1834)  Emmanuel  Gaillard  improved 
upon  this  assertion  Avhich,  in  its  turn,  had  been  presented  with- 
out any  citation  of  proofs:  J'  ajouterai  qu'  elle  (Mile  Millet) 
demeurait  a  Rouen,  rue  aux  Juifs,  No.  15.  Le  fait  m'  a  ete  at- 
teste  par  M.  Dommey,  ancien  greifier,  et  par  deux  demoiselles 
(16).  Marty-Laveaux  sought  to  reconcile  these  two  identifica- 
tions ;  first  by  supposing  that  Mile  Millet  became  Mme  Du  Pont 
through  marriage;  (17)  then,  renouncing  this  theory,  he  con- 
cluded that  Corneille  had  been  inspired  by  two  sweethearts, 
Mile  Millet,  for  whom  he  had  felt  an  ephemeral  passion  about 
the  time  of  the  composition  of  the  Melite,  and  another,  Mme  Du 
Pont,  to  whom  he  had  consecrated  the  more  enduring  affection 
reflected  in  the  Excuse  a  Ariste. 

In  his  valuable  work  Points  obscurs  et  nouveaux  de  la  vie 
de  Pierre  Corneille,  Mr.  Bouquet  has  expounded  a  theory  of 
the  Melite  as  an  autobiographical  document,  which  is  based  sole- 
ly upon  the  information  supplied  by  the  abbe  Granet,  in  1738. 
Mr,  Bouquet  rightly  rejects  the  invention  of  a  shadowy  Mile 
Millet  as  the  prototype  of  Corneille's  Melite  by  Jos.  Andre 
Guiot,  about  1785,  because  this    identification    is    manifestly  a 


very  late  development  of  a  Corueille-legend,  with  no  basis  in 
fact.  Its  origin  is  probably  the  text  of  Fontenelle  where  he 
speaks  abont  a  lady  of  Rouen  who  was  given  the  name  of 
Melite  because  she  was  the  heroine  of  C'orneille's  first  play. 

Althougli  the  commentary  of  the  abbe  Granet  was  written 
more  than  a  century  after  the  first  representation  of  the  Melite 
and  although  lu)  indication  uas  furnished  as  to  the  source  of 
his  important  biographical  details,  his  text  has  been  accepted 
without  question  by  Mr.  Bouquet  and  others,  and  served  as 
basis  for  research  about  Corneille's  early  love  and  his  first  play. 
Mr.  Gosselin  found  in  the  archives  of  Rouen  the  maiden  name 
of  Madame  Du  Pont,  who  was,  according  to  the  abbe  Granet, 
the  lady  Corneille  had  in  mind  when  he  wrote  in  the  Excuse  a 
Ariste: 

"Je  me  sens  tout  emu  quand  je  1'  entends  nommer." 

She  was  the  daughter  of  Charles  Hue,  "receveur  des  aides"  at 
Rouen,  and  of  Catherine  de  Bauquemare.  Baptized  on  the  23d 
of  April,  1611,  she  received  the  name  of  her  mother:  Catherine. 
(18)  From  these  facts  Mr.  Bouquet  deduced  a  series  of  identi- 
fications :  Melite  is  Catherine  Hue ;  Tircis  is  Corneille  himself ; 
the  mother  of  Melite,  mentioned  in  the  play,  although  she  does 
not  appear  on  the  scene,  is  Catherine  de  Bauquemare,  widow  of 
Charles  Hne ;  Cloris,  in  the  play  the  sister  of  Tircis,  is  Corneille 's 
younger  sister,  Marie  Corneille,  born  in  1609.  Eraste  and  Phi- 
landre  remained  unidentified.  Mr.  Bouquet  expresses  his  opin- 
ion that  thy  represent  real  jjersons,  as  the  other  characters  of 
the  play. 

Now,  the  basis  of  the  identifications  of  •  Mr.  Bouquet,  the 
commentary  of  the  abbe  Granet,  does  not  seem  altogether  trust- 
worthy. Granet  laid  special  stress  on  the  fact  that  Corneille's 
love  for  Mme  Du  Pont  (Catherine  Hue)  was  a  very  constant 
one,  lasted  for  many  years,  and  Avas  only  broken  off  about  1637, 
the  time  of  the  Excuse  a  Ariste.  Thomas  Corneille  and  Fon- 
tenelle, to  the  contrary,  only  speak  of  "une  petite  avanture  de 
galanterie"  of  an  ephemeral  character.  Here  follows  Granet 's 
commentary  in  full : 

"II  (Conieille)  avoit  aime  passionement  une  dame  de 
Rouen,  nommee  Mme  Du  Pont,  femme  d'  nn  niaitre  des  comptes 
de  la  meme  ville,  parfaitement  belle.  II  1'  avoit  connue  toute 
petite  fille  pendant  qu'  il  etudiait  au  College  des  Jesuites,  et  fit 
pour  elle  plusieurs  petites  pieces  de  galanterie,  qu'  il  n^a  jamais 


voulu  rendre  puhliques,  q\ielf|iies  instances  que  lui  aient  faites  ses 
amis;  11  les  brula  lui  meme  e}iviron  deux  aiis  avant  sa  mort.  II 
lui  communiquoit  la  piupart  dc  ses  piccefi  avant  de  les  mettre  au 
jour,  et  comme  elle  avoit  beaucoup  d'  esprit,  elle  critiquoit  fort 
judicieusement,  de  sorte  que  M.  Coi-neille  a  dit  plusieurs  fois  qu' 
il  lui  etoit  redevable  de  plusieurs  endroits  de  ses  premieres 
pieces."     (CEuvres  de  Corneille,  1738). 

Since  Corneille  left  the  College  of  the  Jesuits  about  1623, 
his  love  for  Catherine  Hue  (later  Mme  Du  Pont),  according  to 
Granet's  commentary,  must  have  begun  before  this  date;  and 
since  he  is  said  to  have  shown  her  "most  of  his  early  plays",  he 
must  have  been  on  good  terms  with  her  until  at  least  1634-35. 
Corneille 's  love  is  thus  represented  as  a  very  constant  one,  last- 
ing from  ten  to  twelve  years.  It  is  to  this  constant  love  Cor- 
neille is  supposed  to  allude  in  the  Excuse  a  Ariste  (1637),  when 
he  tells  us  that  love  taught  him  to  rhyme: 

"Puisque  ce  fut  par  la  que  j'  appris  a  rimer." 
Now%  it  must  be  noticed  that  Corneille  had  already  referred 
five  years  earlier  to  that  love  "which  taught  him  to  rhyme",  in 
one  of  the  poems  printed  in  an  appendix  to  his  play  Clitandre 
(1632)  : 

J'  ai  fait  autrefois  de  la  bete; 
J'  avois  des  Philis  a  la  tete : 


Soleils,  flambeaux,  attraits,  appas, 
Pleurs,   desespoirs,  tourments,  trepas, 
Tout  ce  petit  nieuble  de  bouche 
Dont  un  amoureux  s'  escarmouche 
Je  savais  bien  m'en  escrimer; 
Par  Id  je  m'appris  a  rimer; 
Par  la  je  fis  sans  autre  chose, 
Un  sot  en  vers  d'  un  sot  en  prose.  .  .  . 

(Marty-Laveaux,  X,  25). 

In  both  poems  the  name  of  the  lady  is  given  as  Philis.. 
Now,  if  these  two  poems  refer  to  the  same  love-adventure,  as 
is  quite  clear  from  their  text,  this  love-adventure  had  ceased 
in  1632,  and  Corneille  was  not  taught  to  rhyme  by  a  long  and 
constant  love,  but  by  an  ephemeral  love-adventure,  the  "petite 
aventure  de  galanterie"  to  which  Fontenelle  refers.     The  poem 


of  1632  (a  Monsieur  D.  L.  T.)  indicates  clearly  that  at  that 
date  Corneille  was  cured  from  love-fever.  It  is  very  apparent, 
on  the  other  hand,  in  the  Exc^ise  a  Ariste  (1637)  that  the  love 
referred  to  had  ceased  a  lonj;  time  previously  for  Corneille 
says  there : 

"Aussi  n'  aimais  je  plus  et  nul  objet  vainqueur, 
"N'  a  possede  depuis  ma  veine  ni  mon  coeur." 

Both  poems  refer  then  to  a  love  adventure,  which  taught 
Corneille  to  rhyme,  and  which  must  have  been  finished  before 
1632,  so  that  the  explanations  of  the  abbe  Granet  about  the 
corrections  which  Mme  Du  Pont  suggested  in  the  early  plays 
of  Corneille  cannot  be  accepted  as  based  in  fact.  Granet  seems 
to  have  felt  that  there  existed  a  contradiction  between  his  com- 
mentary, which  mentioned  a  long  and  constant  love,  and  the 
text  of  the  Excuse  a  Ariste,  which  referred  to  a  love  finished 
since  a  long  time.  He  misread  Corneille 's  text,  or  changed  it 
to  make  it  fit  in  with  his  own  explanation.  Corneille  had  writ- 
ten: 

Elle  eut  mes  premiers  vers,  elle  eut  mes  derniers  feux; 

In  Granet 's  text  this  verse  reads: 

Elle  eut  mes  premiers,  elle  eut  mes  premiers  feux;  (Marty 
•Lav  X,  77,  Note  2)  which  agreed  with  is  own  commentary:  "II 
1'  avoit  connue  toute  petite  fille  pendant  qu'  il  etudiait  a  Rouen 
au  College  des  Jesuites." 

Another  point  in  which  the  commentary  of  the  abbe  Granet 
is  not  in  accordance  with  fact  is  that  he  says  that  Corneille 
wrote  for  his  beloved  "plusieurs  petites  pieces  de  galanterie 
qu'  il  n'  a  jamais  voulu  rendre  publiques,  quelques  instances 
que  lui  aient  faites  ses  amis."  This  statement  cannot  refer  to  the 
poems  Corneille  wrote  for  his  sweetheart,  Melite,  for,  far  from 
refusing  to  print  them,  he  publishes  twice  the  well-known  sonnet : 
"Apres  les  yeux  de  Melite  il  n'  y  a  rien  d'  adorable",  once  in 
the  Poesies  following  the  Clitandre  and  once  in  the  play  Melite. 
Besides,  the  very  fact  that  he  produced  a  whole  play  about  his 
love  adventure  shows  clearly  enough  that  he  was^taifi^e  to  pub- 
licity about  it.  (vMxt) 

It  must  be  concluded  that  the  commentary  of  the  abbe 
Granet  does  not  present  a  sufficiently  reliable  clue  to  the  iden- 
tity of  the  real  lady,  who,  possibly,  is  hidden  behind  the  name 
Melite  in  Corneille 's  first  work. 


When  the  identifications  made  by  Gosselin  and  Bou- 
quet are  considered  from  the  point  of  view  of  internal  evidence 
some  contradictions  are  at  once  perceived.  Tircis,  said  to  be 
Corneille  himself,  is  indeed  a  credulous  personage.  When  the 
false  letters,  manufactured  by  Eraste,  fall  in  his  hands,  he  at 
once  runs  away,  speaking  of  suicide  instead  of  ascertaining 
from  his  beloved  their  reality  or  falseness.  And,  Cloris,— sup- 
posed to  be  Marie  Corneille,— is  represented  in  the  play  as  very 
free  in  manners.  She  has  on  the  scene  very  intimate  love-con- 
versations with  her  lover,  Philandre,  and  she  accepts  the  falsi- 
fier Eraste  for  husband  without  showing  any  notion  of  moral 
reserve.  Would  Corneille  have  painted  his  younger  sister  with 
such  traits?  (19). 

Corneille 's  first  play  concludes  with  marriages  of  Tircis 
with  Melite  and  of  Cloris  with  Eraste.  They  took  place  the  same 
evening,  after  the  action,  as  is  proved  by  various  passages  in  the 
first  edition  which  have  mostly  been  erased  in  the  later  ones. 
Verses  1707  and  following,  for  instance,  sounded  in  the  early 
editions : 

Tircis : 

Tons  nos  pensers  sont  dus  a  ces  chastes  delices 
Dont  le  ciel  se  prepare  a  borner  nos  supplices: 
Le  terme  en  est  si  proche,  il  n 'attend  que  la  nuit. 
and  the  play  concluded : 
La  Nourrice : 

Allez,  je  vais  vous  faire  a  ce  soir  telle  niche, 
Qu'au  lieu  de  labourer,  vous  lairrez  tout  en  friche. 
The  expressions  are  not  elegant  but  quite  clear;  they  prove  that 
the  marriages  were  set  for  the  same  evening  that  the  action  was 
finished. 

Now,  Corneille 's  love-adventure,  which  he  is  supposed  to 
have  brought  on  the  scene  with  the  Melite,  was  not  ended  with 
a  marriage. 

Apres  beaucoup  de  voeux  et  de  submissions, 
Un  malheur  rompt  le  cours  de  nos  affections, 
he  said  in  the  Excuse  a  Ariste,  eight  years  after  the  time  of 
the  Melite.  Mr.  Bouquet  (op.  Cit.  58)  opiniates  that,  by  the  end 
of  the  play,  the  real  Melite  had  obtained  a  promise  of  marriage 
from  her  mother  and  he  devotes  a  page  to  an  hypothesis  about 
the  fact  why  this  promise  was  not  kept.     Such  marriages  at  the 


end  of  plays  were  entirely  conventional  so  that  no  autobiographi- 
cal value  can  be  attached  to  them. 

All  that  results  from  the  conflicting  testimonials  of  Fon- 
tenelle,  Thomas  Corneille  and  the  abbe  Granet,  is  that  the 
nucleus  of  the  Melite  was  furnished  by  a  personal  love-adven- 
ture of  Corneille,  and  that  to  that  nucleus,  he  added  various 
episodes.  (See  note  20).  It  is  possible  that  Madame  Du  Pont 
(Catherine  Hue)  was  the  heroine  of  the  Melite,  but  there  is  no 
contemporary  evidence  to  that  effect.  The  statements  of  the 
Abbe  Granet  must  be  accepted  only  with  reserve.  It  seems  un- 
warranted to  build  on  the  slight  foundation  of  his  conflicting 
commentary  a  series  of  identifications  as  undertaken  in  the 
work  of  Mr.  Bouquet.  Until  more  evidence  is  presented,  it 
seems  reasonable  to  state  about  the  Melite  nothing  more  than 
exactly  what  Thomas  Corneille  and  Fontenelle  said:  That  the 
impulse  to  write  the  Melite  and  the  nucleus  of  the  play  were 
both  due  to  a  personal  adventure  of  Pierre  Corneille. 

And  even  then  it  is  necessary  to  make  a  preliminary  dis- 
tinction: Corneille 's  love  for  Melite  may  have  been  the  occasion 
of  the  first  blossoming  of  his  talent,  it  cannot  be  its  origin. 
Corneille  Avas  quite  well  acquainted  with  the  literature  of  the 
times  (21),  and  it  is  possible  to  find  counterparts  of  the  char- 
acters and  of  the  situations  of  the  Melite  in  the  novels  and  the 
plays  of  his  period.  In  some  parts  the  incidents  and  the  char- 
acters of  Corneille 's  early  plays  resemble  so  closely  more  or 
less  traditional  stage-characters  and  situations  that  the  ques- 
tion "Where  ends  the  biographical  inspiration  and  where  be- 
gins the  purely  literary?"  seems  well-nigh  insoluble.  A  few 
resemblances  and  counterparts  of  the  heroes  and  the  plot  of 
Corneille 's  first  play  will  be  pointed  out  in  the  following  pages, 

THE  NAME  MELITE 

The  name  Melite  is  found  in  the  Greek  Anthology,  in  one 
of  the  thirty-eight  epigrams  of  the  Byzantine  poet  Rufinus.  It 
occurs  too  in  the  late  Greek  novel  Clitophon's  and  Leucippus' 
Loves  by  Achilles  Tatius,  where  it  designates  a  wealthy  widow. 
This  novel  was  much  in  vogue  in  European  countries  during  the 
sixteenth  and  early  seventeenth  centuries.  The  last  four  books 
were  translated  from  Greek  into  Latin  by  Annibal  della  Croce, 
(22)  and  then  from  Latin  into  French  under  the  title  ^'Les 
Devis  Amoureux"   (23)   by  L'  Amoureux  de  la  Vertu    (Claude 


Collet),  in  1545.  Another  translation  which  ran  through  three 
editions  was  produced  some  ten  years  later  by  Jacques  de 
Roquemare  (24)  :  Les  quatre  dernier s  livres  de  propos  amour eux 
contenans  le  discours  des  amours  et  marriage  du  seigneur  Clito- 
phont  et  damoiselle  Leusippe.  Then  follows  the  complete  work 
in  French:  Les  Amours  de  Clitophon  et  de  Leusippe,  escrits 
en  grec  par  Achilles  Statins,  Alexandrin,  et  nouvellement  tra- 
duits  en  francois  par  B.  (Belleforest)  Comingeois.  There  are 
three  editions  of  this  translation.  The  evident  popularity  of 
the  novel  is  further  attested  by  the  plays  derived  from  it.  A 
lost  play  of  Alexandre  Hardy  (25),  Leueosie,  was  developed 
from  it  as  a  source  and  one  of  its  characters  probably  was 
named  Melite.  Pierre  du  Ryer  also  found  in  it  the  plot  of  his 
Clitophon  which  was  played  about  1628,  and  in  which  Melite 
is  a  wealthy  widow  pursuing  the  hero  Clitophon  with  her  atten- 
tions. (25a).  The  name  occurs  also  in  other  works  composed  inde- 
pendently of  the  Greek  novel.  So,  for  example,  an  anonymous 
novel  of  1609  is  entitled  Les  Amours  de  Melite  et  de  Statiphile 
(26).  In  the  pastoral  play  of  Hardy,  Corinne  ou  le  silence, 
Corine  et  Melite  appear  as  "jeunes  bergeres,  egales  en  beaute, 
qui  deviennent  eperdument  amoureuses  de  Caliste."  The  name 
further  appears  in  three  other  plays  which  were  produced  be- 
fore Corneille  's  first  comedy.  Melite  is  the  friend  of  Amaranthe 
in  the  pastoral  play  of  that  name  by  Gombauld  (1625).  Pro- 
fessor H.  Carrington  Lancaster  has  recently  drawn  attention  to 
another  play  in  which  a  Melite  is  found,  to  Rampalle's  Belinde, 
published  in  1630  (26a).  And,  finally,  in  the  Bague  d'  Ouhli  of 
Eotrou,  Melite  appears  in  the  "dramatis  personae"  as  a  "demoi- 
selle confidente  de  Liliane."    (27). 

There  is  no  reason  to  seek  in  the  name  Melite  a  clue  for  the 
identity  of  the  heroine  in  the  "petite  avauture  de  galanterie" 
by  which  the  poet  is  said  to  have  been  inspired  nor  to  believe  it 
an  anagram.  It  is  merely  a  name  taken  from  the  literature  of 
the  time,  although  considerably  less  banal  than  that  of  Philis 
which  Corneille  uses  in  the  verses  quoted  with  reference  to  the 
same  or  another  love  affair. 

THE  RIVAL  FRIENDS 

Now  as  to  the  "adventure"  itself.  Only  the  initial  episode 
of  the  play  can  be  interpreted  as  autobiographical :  Braste  pre- 
sents his  friend,  the  women-despising  Tircis,  to  his  sweetheart 


Melite.  Tircis  falls  in  love  with  her  at  sight  and  soon  supplants 
Eraste  in  the  young  lady's  affections.  The  rest  of  the  story: 
the  false  letters,  the  madness  of  Eraste  and  the  marriages  at 
the  end,  are  obviously  commonplaces  from  the  literature  of  the 
times.  They  constitute  the  incidents  which  Corneille,  accord- 
ing to  the  testimonial  of  Fontenelle,  "added  to  truth."  The 
alleged  auto-biographical  part  of  the  play,  the  initial  episode, 
will  be  considered  here  first. 

While  it  may  well  be  that  Corneille  met  in  real  life  with  a 
"galant"  experience  closely  akin  to  the  main  theme  of  the 
Melite,  it  was  yet  a  kind  of  adventure  which  had  become  long 
since  a  common-place  in  literature.  Unless  we  believe  that,  in 
Corneille 's  case,  there  arose  in  real  life  a  spontaneous  duplica- 
tion of  a  traditional  situation  in  the  letters  of  the  time,  we  must 
assume  that  his  inspiration  was  literary.  But,  even  granted 
that  the  nucleus  of  the  Melite  was  a  personal  adventure  and  not  a 
duplication  of  a  favorite  literary  situation,  Corneille 's  treat- 
ment of  the  story,  his  arrangement  of  the  scenes,  his  conception 
of  his  heroes  and  characters  were  influenced  by  the  contempor- 
ary examples  which  were  numerous  enough  to  constitute  stock 
themes  of  the  authors  of  the  period. 

To  illustrate  this  contention,  it  is  sufficient  to  turn  to  a 
parallel  of  the  story  of  the  rival  friends  in,  for  example  Lyly's 
-BtH-el  Euphues.  Witty  Euphues  is  at  first,  like  Hiiaifito,  a  satyri- 
cal  woman-hater,  (p.  36-37.  Ed.  M.  Croll  and  H.  Clemond).  But, 
being  presented  by  his  friend  Philautus  to  Lucilla,  for  three 
years  the  latter 's  sweetheart,  he  too  supplants  him  in  the  lady's 
affections.  The  story  develops  like  Corneille 's  and  purports 
to  show  "the  falsehood  in  fellowship,  the  fraud  in  friendship, 
the  fair  w^ords  that  make  fools  fain."  Euphues  decides,  in  a 
soliloquy  that  over  his  friendship  his  love  must  prevail.  In  a 
similar  way  Tircis  determines: 

"En  matiere  d 'amour  rien  n 'oblige  a  tenir, 
Et  les  meilleurs  amis,  lorsque  son  feu  les  presse, 
Font  bientot  vanite  d'oublier  leur  promesse. " 

While  the  beginning  of  both  stories  is  parallel,  the  end  dif- 
fers: Euphues  is  supplanted  by  a  third  lover;  Tircis  marries 
Melite  as  is  natural  in  a  comedy  with  a  happy  ending. 

The  story  of  the  rival  friends  in  Euphues  has  been  asserted 
to  be  autobiographical,  even  as  in  Corneille 's  Melite.    (28).     On 


the  other  hand  it  has  been  pointed  out  convincingly  that  this 
struggle  between  friendship  and  love  is  a  connnonplace  of  lit- 
erature which  probably  originated  from  a  lost  Greek  romance ; 
and  that  Lylj'  was  directly  indebted  to  Boccaccio's  Tito  and 
Gisippo  {Decani,  x,  8)  for  his  narrative  (29). 

But  what  about  Corueille's  Melitef  There  too  are  found 
the  same  details  of  plot,  the  common  features  of  the  traditional 
story  of  the  two  rival  friends.  They  can  be  shortly  described 
as  follows :  A  has  been  for  years  in  love  with  a  girl,  to  whom 
he  presents  his  friend  B,  generally  depicted  as  a  woman-hater 
or  as  a  wit.  During  the  visit  to  the  betrothed  B  falls  in  love 
with  her  at  first  sight.  An  internal  struggle  follows  between 
his  friendship  for  A  and  his  love.  In  most  stories  A  gives  up 
his  sweetheart  to  B  and  helps  him  to  marry  her;  but  in  some 
cases — as,  for  instance,  in  Euphues, — a  struggle  between  the 
two  friends  follows. 

It  does  not  fall  within  the  scope  of  this  study  to  trace  the 
origin  of  the  numerous  narratives  and  plays  based  on  the  con- 
flict between  rival  friends,  nor  even  to  study  the  various  forms 
it  has  taken  in  literature.  For  the  present  purpose  it  is  suffi- 
cient to  point  out  that  the  story  was  treated  so  frequently  about 
the  time  of  Corneille's  debut,  that  it  can  reasonably  be  supposed 
that  he  was  acquainted  with  it:  (30). 

The  story  had  become  familiar  through  translations  and 
adaptations  of  Boccaccios's  Tito  e  Gisippo,  the  eighth  Novella  of 
the  Tenth  day  of  the  Decamerone.  The  forty-sixth  novel  in 
Le  Grand  parangon  des  nouvelles  Nouvelles,  by  Nicolas  de 
Troyes,  (31)  relates  the  adventure  *'D'un  compaignon,  qui  pour 
I'amour  qu'il  avoit  a  ung  sien  compaignon  lui  donna  et  livra  sa 
propre  femme  pour  espouser. ' '  Another  imitation  is  contained  in 
Le  Petit  Oeuvre  d' amour  ou  gaige  d'amitie  contenant  plusieurs 
diets  amour eux  (32).  Fillipo  Beroaldo  translated  the  story 
into  Latin  Verse  and  this  in  its  turn  was  translated  into 
French  (33). 

In  the  literature  of  the  time  the  Astree  contains  at  least 
two  versions  of  this  story ;  first  the  adventures  of  Thamyre  and 
Calydon  both  in  love  with  the  fair  Celidee,  and  secondly  of 
Palemon  who  favors  his  friend  Adraste  in  his  love  for  his  Avife, 
Doris  (34).  In  the  play  Isabel  of  P.  Ferry  (1610)  Calvonte,  in 
love  with  Clorifee,  assists  his  rival.  The  same  situation  occurs 
in  La  Diane  Frangoise  of  Du  Verdier  (1624)  in   which  Climandre 


is  ready  to  resign  Amarante  to  his  friend  Pilamon,  and  finally, 
in  La  Clorise  of  Baro,  Eraste  f^ives  up  his  beloved  C'loris  to 
Alidor,  her  other  lover  (35),  Alexandre  Hai'dj-,  to  whom  Cor- 
neille  refers  as  his  first  model,  adapted  Boccaccio's  novel  to  the 
stage  with  his  Gesippe  on  les  deux  a))iis.  "Tite,  jeune  gei\til- 
honmie  Romain,  etudiant  a  Athenes  contracte  une  etroite  amitie 
avee  Gesippe,  Athenien  de  meme  age  et  de  meme  qualite,  qui 
sur  le  point  d'epouser  une  des  belles  d 'Athenes  en  voulut  don- 
ner  la  veue  a  ce  sien  fidelle  amy;  I'aspect  d'une  contagieuse 
beaute  captive  Tite  d'une  telle  sorte  que  reduit  au  desespoir  il 
projette  d'abandonner  la  ville  d 'Athenes  et  sa  vie''  (36).  Hardy's 
treatment  of  the  story  differs,  of  course,  from  Corneille's  in  that 
Gesippe  yields  his  sw^eetheart  to  his  friend  and  even  assists  in 
forming  their  attachment,  whereas  in  Corneille's  comedy  Eraste 
strives  to  retain  Melite.  But  the  denouement  is  identical.  Just 
as  Eraste  finally  marries  Cloris,  sister  of  his  friend  Tircis,  so  in 
Hardy's  play,  Gesippe  marries  Fulvie,  sister  of  his  friend  and 
successful  rival,  Tite.  These  similarities  are  the  more  significant 
because  Corneille  must  have  been  acquainted  with  Hardy's 
work,  for  it  was  published  at  Rouen  by  a  friend  of  his,  David 
du  Petit-Val,  and  in  the  year  1626,  that  is,  only  a  short  time  be- 
fore he  must  have  begun  to  think  of  producing  his  first  comedy. 

Another  play  by  Hardy,  the  tragi-comedy,  Dorise,  is  of  even 
greater  interest  in  this  connection.  The  first  scene  of  this  play 
also  presents  two  friends  in  love  with  the  same  girl  and  with 
the  same  result ;  the  first  lover  is  supplanted  by  the  second  who 
marries  the  heroine.  Furthermore  there  is  a  striking  resem- 
blance in  important  details  of  the  plot.  A  display  of  letters 
plays  an  important  part  in  the  Dorise  as  well  as  in  the  Melite 
and  the  supplanted  lover,  Salmacis,  runs  away  to  a  hermitage 
and  becomes  mad  under  the  influence  of  a  mysterious  charm  . 
much  after  the  manner  of  Eraste,  in  Corneille's  comedy.  In 
both  plays  the  supplanted  lovers  finally  recover  their  senses  and 
both  plays  end  in  a  double  marriage  (37). 

Without  lengthening  unduly  the  list  of  the  imitations  of 
the  Rival-Friend  story,  it  is  clear  that  love  and  friendship 
brought  into  rivalry  was  not  uncommon  in  the  literature  prev- 
ious to  Corneille's  debut.  The  initial  episode  of  the  Melite: — 
a  lover  presents  a  friend  to  his  sweetheart,  and,  after  a  struggle, 
is  supplanted  by  him — is  found,  situation  for  situation,  in  sev- 
eral counterparts.    Corneille's  first  play  seems  a  variation  upon 


a  stock  theme  of  contemporary  romance  rather  than  pure  auto- 
biography. And,  therefore,  identification  of  the  characters  of 
the  Melite  with  living  persons  is  more  than  hazardous.  All  that 
can  be  gathered  from  the  testimonials  of  Thomas  Corneille  and 
of  Fontenelle  is  that,  in  the  Melite,  fact  was  mingled  to  some 
degree  with  fiction  and  truth  with  make-believe.  Yet  modern 
criticism  has  tended  to  make  the  Melite  entirely  true,  and  a 
realistic  autobiography.  If  Corneille  really  utilized  a  personal 
experience,  he  followed  traditional  models  in  the  treatment  of 
his  material,  in  the  development  and  succession  of  his  scenes, 
in  the  characterization  of  his  heroes. 

IS  TIRCIS,  CORNEILLE? 

Tircis,  who,  in  the  Melite,  supplants  his  frieiul  Eraste  in 
his  sweetheart's  affections,  has  been  identified  generally  with 
Corneille  himself  (40).  He  is  depicted  as  a  sceptic  in  love- 
matters  who  becomes  a  convert  to  love  through  the  bewitching 
beauty  of  Melite. 

Such  an  identification  becomes,  however,  very  doubtful 
when  it  is  remembered  that  in  the  early  editions,  Tircis  was 
guilty  of  several  indecent  expressions  and  allusions.  (41).  Why 
would  Corneille  have  depicted  himself  in  such  unfavorable 
light?  Would  he  really  have  represented  himself  as  a  light- 
hearted  sceptic,  frequently  indecent  in  his  expressions,  who  be- 
trayed his  friend  in  love?  Would  he  have  made  the  reputation 
of  his  beloved  Melite  who  rejected  her  first  suitor,  an  object 
of  public  commentary?  Yet,  whether  Corneille  intended  to  em- 
body his  own  "self"  in  Tircis  or  not,  the  first  audiences  of  the 
Melite  must  have  recognized  in  Tircis  a  personage  with  whom 
they  were  already  very  familiar.  There  had  grown  up  in  the 
sixteenth  century  even,  in  reaction  against  the  hero  embodying 
the  Platonic  love  conception  which  had  spread  from  Italy,  a 
type  which  served  sometimes  as  a  contrast  and  sometimes  as  a 
foil  to  these  conceptions.  It  was  a  type  which  railed  at  the 
flowery  language  and  the  absurd  actions  of  the  exponents  of 
"r  amour  eternel;"  it  was  a  literary  impersonation  of  "I'esprit 
gaulois"  which  voiced  a  revolt  against  the  unreal  ideals  of  the 
pastoral  novels  and  plays,  insisted  upon  the  realities  of  life  and 
love;  who  claimed  the  right  of  lovers  to  "change"  and  eren 
erected  inconstancy  into  a  rule  of  conduct.  As  such  it  appears 
in  the  person  of  the  cynic  Saifredent,  opponent  to  the  Platonist 


Dagroncin  in  the  Ileptameron  of  Marguerite  of  Navarre.  It  is 
easy  to  trace  the  character  through  the  literature  which  fol- 
lowed. Estieiiiie  Pas(iuier  introduced  him  in  his  Monophile 
(1554),  the  possessor  "d'un  eoeur  gay  et  Francois,  estant  adonne 
a  toutes,  sans  faire  estat  d'  une  seule"  who  believed  "que 
meilleur  est  faindre  I'amour  que  d 'aimer. "  In  La  Pyrenee  of 
Belief orest  (1572)  his  name  is  Drion,  who  brings  love  back  to 
its  natural  and  materialistic  origin  and  has  no  patience  with, 
the  Platonic  dreamers:  "Quant  a  moi,  j'ainie  mieux  rire  a  mon. 
aise  sentant  et  savourant  un  peu  de  plaisir,  qu'extatic  et  reveur 
songer  un  bonheur  qui  ne  se  gagne  que  par  imagination."  In 
the  Bergeries  de  Juliette  by  OUenix  de  Mont-Sacre  (Nicolas  de 
Monti-eux)  he  appears  as  the  cool  headed  Glaphire  and  as  the 
woman-hater  Belair  in  Les  Infideles  Fiddles,  fahle  hoscagerre 
(1603)  of  the  "shepherd  Calianthe"  (probably  G.  de  Bazire). 
Many  other  novels  and  plays  contain  this  type  of  the  witty 
sceptic,  merry  and  light-hearted  womanhater,  lavish  with  his 
shrewd  materialistic  counsels.  He  appears  as  Floridan  in 
L'Heureux  Desespere,  tragi-comedie  -pastorale  (1613)  by  C.  A. 
Seigneur  de  C.  (Comte  Adrien  de  Cramail?),  whose  motto  is: 
"A  tons  vents,"  and  who  rails  at  the  constancy  of  Angeralde. 
Philiris  in  the  Isahelle  (1610)  of  Paul  Ferry  represents  the  type 
when  he  exclaims:  "Moy  qui  n'aime  sinon  ce  qui  m'est  profit- 
able." 

The  most  interesting  and  most  highly  developed  represen- 
tative of  the  type  is  probably  Hylas  in  the  Astree  (42)  the 
smiling  dilettante  of  love,  the  theorician  of  inconstancy  as  a 
rule  of  conduct.  Throughout  the  novel  his  capricious  and  witty 
attacks  upon  the  apotheosis  of  Avoman  and  the  hollow  unreality 
of  shepherd  love  serve  as  an  antidote  to  the  abstract  and  sub- 
limated theories  of  Celadon.  And  in  his  conduct  he  puts  his 
theories  into  practice.  For  example,  in  the  third  book  (second 
volume)  where  Clorion  is  in  love  with  Cyrene,  he  makes  Hylas 
his  confident.  Hylas  encourages  him  and  promises  to  serve  as 
his  ambassador  and  advocate  with  the  lady  but,  like  Tircis  in 
the  Meliie,  he  betrays  the  faith  of  his  friend.  He  falls  in  love 
Avith  Cyrcene  and  adds  her  to  the  already  formidable  number 
of  his  amorous  conquests.  The  mental  debate  on  friendship 
versus  love  in  which  Hylas  indulges  (L.  217)  is  quite  in  line 
with  the  debate  portrayed  in  the  monologue  of  Tircis  at  the  end 
of  the  third  scene  of  the  first  act  of  the  Melite  and  the  conclu- 


sion  is  the  same,  namely,  that  in  love  matters,  sentiment  of  the 
friend  must  give  way  before  the  passions  of  the  lover.  This 
idea  is  found  more  precisely  stated  in  the  comedy  which  Mare- 
chal  composed  on  the  basis  of  the  Hylas  episodes  in  the  Astree: 
L'Inconstance  d'  Hylas   (43). 

L 'amour  de  Periandre  augmente  mon  ennuie, 

Ma  flamme  de  ses  feux,  tient  la  foi'ce  et  la  vie, 

Montrons-luy  qu'en  amour  tout  effort  est  permis. 

Qu'  Hylas  pour  estre  amant,  ne  connoit  point  d'amy. 
And  Tircis  in  the  Melite   (I.  3)  gives  utterance  to  precisely  the 
same  sentiments: 

En  matiere  d 'amour  rien  n 'oblige  a  tenir, 

Et  les  meilleurs  amis,  lorsque  son  feu  les  presse 

Font  bientot  vanite  d'oublier  leurs  promesses  (44). 

In  1627  Hon.  d'Urfe  brought  Hylas  on  the  stage  in  his 
Sylvanire.  As  in  the  Melite, — the  play  opens  with  a  discus- 
sion between  two  friends  about  love.  Aglante,  deeply  in  love 
with  Sylvanire,  is  here  confronted  with  the  smiling  and  cynical 
Hylas  in  the  same  way  as  Eraste  and  Tircis  in  the  first  scene  of 
Corneille's  play.  The  whole  dispute,  Avhich  can  be  traced  to 
Italian  models  runs  along  the  same  general  lines  (45). 

And  here  is  found  the  connecting  link  between  the  t\T)e  of 
the  love-sceptic  (Monophile,  Dagoncin,  Euphues,  Hylas,  Tircis, 
etc.)  and  the  story  of  the  two  Rival  Friends.  Before  Corneille 
already,  as  exemplified  above,  the  light-hearted  sceptic  in  love 
had  been  identified  with  the  faithless  friend.  Corneille's  Tircis 
is  a  counterpart  of  these  M^ell-known  fiction  characters  rather 
than  his  own  portrait.  In  1660,  Corneille  himself  perceived  that 
his  Tircis  was  not  altogether  **vrayseniblable."  He  said  in  his 
Examen  de  Melite:  Tircis,  qui  est  1'  honnete  homme  de  la 
piece,  n'  a  pas  l'  esprit  moins  leger  que  les  deux  autres."  (Philis 
and  Eraste). 

There  is  every  reason  to  conclude  that  Corneille,  composing 
his  first  play,  should  have  shown  toward  the  conventional  types 
and  scenes  of  the  literature  of  his  time  much  of  that  docility 
which  he  was  to  display  in  after  years,  in  matters  of  far  greater 
moment,  when  his  mastery  of  the  art  had  won  recognition.  Even 
granted  that  he  attempted  self-portrayal  with  his  Tii'cis,  he 
only  succeeded  in  reproducing  a  Avell-kno\m  character  of  con- 
temporary fiction,  placed  in  a  traditional  situation,  struggling 
with  the  much  exploited  "love  versus  friendship"  problem. 


THE  LETTER-DEVICE  AND  THE  MADNESS  OF  ERASTE 
The  plot  of  the  Melite  contains  two  other  fundamental  ele- 
ments: the  use  of  forged  letters  and  the  madness  of  firaste. 
Reference  to  the  outline  of  the  play,  given  above,  shows  that 
Eraste  in  order  to  balk  his  rival,  forges  letters  from  Melite  to 
Philandre.  These  letters,  falling  into  the  hands  of  Tircis  are 
the  pivot  upon  which  the  plot  turns.  No  attempt  has  ever  been 
made  to  connect  both  these  episodes  Avith  Corneille's  life;  con- 
sideration of  them  may  therefore  be  limited  to  a  search  in  con- 
temporary literature  for  the  models  upon  which  they  were  con- 
structed. 

The  letter-device  was  very  popular  w^ith  the  authors  of  the 
period.  It  is  sufficient  to  open  any  novel  to  find  love  letters 
used  for  all  purposes.  The  Astree,  notably,  is  full  of  them  and 
many  go  to  the  Avrong  address.  The  novel  begins  wdth  a  letter 
stratagem  very  similar  to  the  one  used  by  Corneille.  Alcippe, 
father  of  Celadon,  has  a  young  shepherd,  Squilindre,  prepare 
"une  lettre  contrefaite"  in  order  to  produce  an  estrangement 
between  Astree  and  his  son.  In  the  fifth  volume  (book  11) 
Squilindre  prepares  another  forged  letter,  from  Sigismond  to 
Dorinde,  at  the  behest  of  king  Gondebaut.  In  like  manner 
firaste,  in  the  Francion  of  Sorel  forges  a  letter  with  the  same 
fraudulent  intentions  and  the  father  of  Florigene  in  Les  Be- 
ligieuses  Amours  de  Florigene  et  de  Meleagre,  makes  use  of 
the  same  trick  in  order  to  create  a  misunderstanding  between 
his  daughter  and  Meleagre,  her  lover  (46).  In  many  cases  the 
letters  are  genuine  and  come  into  the  possession  of  the  heroine 
or  of  her  lovers  causing  jealousy  or  despair.  So,  for  example, 
in  the  fourth  book  of  the  first  volume  of  the  Astree,  Semire 
learns  of  the  love  of  Celadon  and  Astree  through  a  lost  letter. 
From  the  novels  the  use  of  letters  in  the  interests  of  the 
plot  passed  into  the  plays.  In  the  Dorise  of  Hardy,  which,  as 
has  been  shown  above,  contains  many  important  elements  of  the 
Melite  plot,  Licanor  makes  use  of  a  letter  to  arouse  the  jeal- 
ousy of  Dorise  and  thus  gain  an  advantage  over  his  more  for- 
tunate rival  Salmacis.  In  the  Amaranthe  of  Gombauld,  (play- 
ed 1623,  published  1628)  Orante  prepares  a  false  letter  pur- 
porting to  come  from  the  goddess  Diane,  by  which  he  hopes  to 
have  his  rival  condemned  to  death.  That  the  use  of  letters  to 
create  jealousy  was  a  popular  device  with  playwrights  is  proved 
by  the  fact  that  it  occurs  in  many  plays  composed  before  or 


after  the  Melite:  Les  Vendanges  de  Suresne  (du  Ryer), 
Celie  and  L'Heureuse  Constance  (Rotrou),  La  Mort  des  En- 
fants  d'H erode  (La  Calprenede)  etc. 

The  forged  letters  upon  which  the  plot  of  Corneille's  first 
comedy  hinges  is  then  one  from  that  extensive  repertory  of  de- 
vices, letters,  rendez-vous,  oracles,  magic  mirrors,  boasted  fav- 
ors, etc.,  out  of  which  contemporary  writers  spun  the  tangled 
webs  of  their  novels  and  plays.  They  are  devoted  to  the  same 
purpose,  triumph  over  a  rival,  and  they  are  all  used  in  about 
the  same  Avay  and  generally  with  the  same  outcome:  Seeing 
the  result  of  these  tricks,  the  perpetrator,  overcome  by  remorse, 
becomes  temporarily  insane,  while  the  victim,  as  a  matter  of 
course  gives  way  to  his  despair  and  contemplates  suicide. 

The  adventures    of    the    lovers    in    the    Melite    follow    this 
course.     Having  read  the  letters  forged  by  Braste,  which  prove 
the  love  of  Melite  for  Philandre,  Tircis  runs  away,  his  mind 
intend  upon  suicide.    At  least  such  was  the  action  in  the  earlier 
versions  in  which  one  reads  these  lines,  removed  in  later  editions : 
Et  mes  pieds  me  porteront  sous  eux  en  quelque  lieu  desert. 
En  quelque  lieu  sauvage  a  peine  decouvert 
Ou  ma  main  d'un  poignard  achevera  le  reste, 
Et  pour  suivre  I'arret  de  mon  destin  funeste, 
Je  repandrai  mon  sang. 
Melite  hearing  a  false    report    of    Tircis'    death  falls  in  a 
swoon  and,  for  the  moment,  is  believed  to  be  dying.     The  car- 
rier of  the  forged  letters  hastens  to  Eraste  and  reproaches  him 
with  the  death  of  the  lovers.    Eraste,  filled  with  remorse  for  his 
crime,  becomes  insane.     Both  the  episode  and  the  treatment  of 
it  in  the  Melite  are  quite  in  harmony  with  the  literary  conven- 
tions of  the  time. 

In  his  Examen  de  Melite  of  1660,  Corneille  confessed  that 
the  madness  scenes  of  his  first  play  were  not  original:  ''La 
folic  d 'Eraste  n'est  pas  de  meilleure  trempe.  Je  la  condamiiois 
des  lors  en  mon  ame ;  mais  comme  c '  etoit  un  ornement  de 
theatre  qui  ne  manquoit  jamais  de  plaire  et  se  faisoit  souvent 
admirer,  j'affectai  volontiers  ces   grands   egarements."    (47). 

During  the  quarrel  of  the  Cid,  one  of  Corneille's  bitterest 
opponents,  Claveret,  wrote  :  *  *  Ceux  qui  consideront  bien  vostre 
fin  de  Melite,  c'est  a  dire  la  frenesie  d 'Eraste,  que  tout  le  monde 
avoue  franchement  estre  de  vostre  invention,  et  qui  verront  le 
peu  de  rapport  que  ces  badineries  ont    avec    ce    que  vous  avez 


derobe,  jugeront  sans  doiite  que  le  commencement  de  la    Melite 

n'  est  pas  une  piece  de  vostre  invention  (48).     Claveret 

means,  of  course,  that  the  "frenesie  d'  :6raste"  was  only  one 
more  proof  of  Corneille's  lack  of  orifrinality  in  the  Mflite.  And, 
in  fact,  the  madness  device  was  one  of  the  commonplaces  of  the 
literature  of  the  times,  (49)  which  was  especially  prevalent  in 
plays  at  the  time  that  Corneille  wrote  his  "coup  d'  essai." 
firaste,  overcome  by  remorse,  believes  that  the  earth  has  burst- 
ed  and  that  he  stands  before  the  Styx.  He  takes  his  helper 
Cliton,  for  Charon,  who,  he  believes,  refuses  him  passage  over 
the  river  of  the  dead.  Now,  Charon's  refusal  to  take  aboard 
the  souls  of  those  lovers  who  were  killed  by  love,  was  a  stock 
theme  of  the  sixteenth  and  of  the  early  seventeenth  century. 
The  popularity  of  the  situation  goes  back  to  the  well-known 
sonnet  of  Olivier  de  Magny,  which,  according  to  the  testimonial 
of  G.  Colletet,  in  his  Traite  du  Sonnet,  was  copied  and  learned 
by  heart  by  every  lover  of  poetry : 

Magny. 
Hola,  Charon,  Charon,  nautonnier  infernal! 

Charon. 
Qui  est  cet  importun  qui  si  presse  m'  appelle? 

Magny. 
C  est  r  esprit  eplore  d'  un  amoureux  fidele, 
Lequel  pour  bien  aimer  n'  eust  janimais  que  du  mal. 

Charon. 
Que  cherches  tu  de  moy? 

Magny. 

Le  passage  fatal. 
Charon. 
Quel  est  ton  homicide? 

Magny. 

0  demande  cruelle! 
Amour  m'  a  fait  mourir. 

Charon. 
Jamais  dans  ma  nasselle 
Nul  subjet  a  1'  amour  je  ne  conduis  a  val. 

Magny. 
Et  de  grace,  Charon,  recoy-moy  dans  ta  barque. 

Charon. 
Cherche  un  autre  nocher,  car  ny  moy,  ny  la  Parque 
N'  entreprenons  jamais  sur  ce  maistre  des  Dieux. 


Magny. 
J'  iray  done  maiigre  toy;  car  j'  ay  dedans  nion  ame 
Tant  de  traicts  amoureux,  tant  de  larmes  aux  yeux, 
Que  je  seray  le  fleiive,  et  la  barque  et  la  rame. 
In  the  Mclite  the  supposedly  dead  lover  to  whom  a  passage 
over  the  tStyx  is  refused,  pretends  to  fight  ghosts  and  gods,  and 
to  inspire  terror  and  confusion  in  the  infernal  regions.     This 
situation  is  found  worked  out  more  at  length  than  in  the  Melite 
in  Ph.  Desportes'  La  mort  de  Rodomont,  et  sa    descente  aux  en- 
fers,  partie  imitee  de    V    Arioste,   partie    de    V    invention  de  V 
auteur,   (50)   and  in  various  plays  of  the  time  as,  for  instance, 
in  Hardy's  Alcmeon  ou  la  vengeance  feminine  and  in  A,  Mar- 
eschal's    La    genereuse    Allemande     (1630).     The    recovery    of 
Corneille's  hero  from  his  spell  of  madness  also  follows  closely 
the  convention  of  the  stage  of  the  period  as  exemplified  by  de 
Viand's    Pirame    et    Thisbe,    Mairet's    Sylvie,    Rotrou's    Hypo- 
condriaque  and  other  plays  (51). 

THE  OTHER  CHARACTERS  OF  THE  MELITE 

The  nurse  w'ho  plays  an  important  part  in  the  recovery  of 
Braste  also  belongs  in  the  list  of  conventions  w^hich  had  long 
been  presented  upon  the  French  stage.  It  was  a  traditional 
character  played  generally  by  a  masked  man.  In  the  comedy 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  to  be  sure,  the  nurse-character  is  rath- 
er rare  for  the  reason  that  the  old  woman  of  the  play  was  gen- 
erally a  "femnie  d 'intrigue"  of  the  Celestina  type.  She  plays 
however,  a  small  role  in  the  Fidele  of  Larrivey  and  a  ridicu- 
lous one  as  Marian  in  L'Escolier.  But  in  the  tragedy  composed 
in  imitation  of  the  ancients,  she  took  a  more  important  part  in 
the  action,  as  in  the  Medee  of  La  Peruse,  the  Lucrece  of  Nico- 
las Filleul  (1566),  La  Carthaginoise  of  Montchrestien,  etc. 
She  even  pays  for  her  interference  in  the  action  with  her  life 
as  in  the  Tyr  et  Sidon  of  de  Schelandre  (1608  and  1628). 

She  appears  in  the  tragi-comedy  as  a  distributor  of  good 
counsels,  favoring  or  combatting  the  love  of  the  hero  or  heroine. 
In  Theophile  de  Viand's  Pyrame  et  Thisbe,  the  nurse,  Ber- 
siane  oversees  the  conduct  of  Thisbe  whom  she  counsels  and  re- 
proaches in  quite  maternal  fashion.  She  appears  in  the  tragi- 
comedy Clotilde  of  Jean  Prevost  (1613),  in  Jean  Auvray's 
Marsilie  (1609,  republished  as  L'Innocence  Decouverte,  1628) 
where  she  plays  an  important  role  and  shares  the  sentence  of 


banisliment  which  has  been  pronounced  against  lier  mistress.  In 
a  number  of  other  plays — especially  in  those  of  Hardy  and  in  the 
Heureux  Naufraye  of  Rotrou — she  is  the  counsellor  and  con- 
fidante and,  in  some  cases  the  "entremetteuse."  Nowhere  does 
she  become  a  comic  character,  nor  is  she  such  in  the  M elite 
except  at  the  very  end.  Everywhere  else  in  the  play  she  ap- 
pears as  a  woman,  full  of  worldly  wisdom,  counselling  Melite 
with  the  solicitude  of  a  mother  and  in  fact  taking  the  place  of 
the  heroine's  mother  Avho  is  mentioned  two  or  three  times  but 
does  not  appear  upon  the  stage.  She  is  really  Melite 's  confi- 
dante and  when  Corneille  in  the  Galerie  du  Palais  metamor- 
phoses the  nurse  into  the  Suivante,  it  Ls  more  her  name  that  has 
changed  than  her  conduct. 

Fournel  (52)  attributes  to  Corneille  a  transformation  of  the 
nurse's  role:  C'est  encore  P.  Corneille  qui,  dans  ses  premieres 
comedies,  a  donne  a  la  nourriee  le  role  le  plus  caracterise.  Fam- 
iliere  avec  Melite,  qu'elle  tutoie,  sa  confidente  et  son  inter- 
mediaire,  tres  prudente,  etc.  The  typical  nurse-character  as 
presented  by  Corneille  was  however  fully  sketched  by  Hardy  in 
his  Felismcne,  Dorise,  Fregonde,  Gesippe,  Alcmeon,  Panthee, 
etc.  In  the  Dorise,  the  Fregonde,  and  the  Oesippe  especially 
is  she  presented  as  the  sort  of  mater-nal  confidant  who  adAises 
and  comforts  the  heroines  quite  in  the  fashion  of  the  Nourriee 
in  the  Melite.  In  the  Gesippe  (Act  I.,  sc.  2)  she  admonishes 
the  heroine : 

JVIais  madame,  il  ne  faut  qu'une  fille  en  cela 
Montre  si  clairement  la  passion  qu'elle  a,  etc. 
and  in  the  Melite  she  sounds  a  similar  warning : 

line  fille  qui  voit  et  que  voit  la  jeunesse 

Ne  s'y  doit  gouverner  qu'avec  beaucoup  d'adresse. 

The  conventional  character  of  the  nurse  in  Corneille 's  first 
comedy  is  made  more  apparent  by  the  two  young  women  of  the 
play  who,  compared  with  her,  are  relatively  realistic  creations. 
Melite  is  represented  as  a  true,  honest,  and  reserved  though 
somewhat  tenderhearted  maiden  who  has  little  need  of  the 
worldly-wise  counsels  which  the  nurse  gives  her.  Her  sentimen- 
tality is  lightened  by  a  shade  of  irony ;  she  is  always  ready  with 
a  wntty  answer  and  she  is  not  at  all  disposed  to  be  carried  away 
by  the  flowery  compliments  of  Eraste.  Cloris  is  less  reserved 
and  less  sentimentally  inclined.     She  is  distinguished  by  practi- 


cal  sense,  and,  although  capricious,  she  remains  very  positive  in 
her  views  on  lovers  and  their  passions. 

When  Eraste  has  sent  the  forged  letters  which  he  claims  to 
have  been  written  by  Melite  to  Philandre,  all  the  characters  of 
the  play  vie  with  one  another  in  credulity.  Philandre  does  hot 
question  for  a  moment  the  authenticily  of  these  letters  brought 
to  him  by  a  messenger  whom  he  docs  not  know,  from  a  young 
lady  whom  he  has  never  met.  Tircis,  having  seen  the  letters, 
seeks  no  explanation  but  immediately  begins  to  contemplate  sui- 
cide. Melite  waits  for  no  verification  of  the  report  of  the  death 
of  Tircis  but  promptly  faints,  while  Eraste  immediately  becomes 
insane  at  the  news  of  the  double  tragedy.  Cloris  alone  remains 
calm  and  intolligent  enough  to  do  the  sensible  and  obvious 
thing;  she  shows  the  letters  to  Melite  who  denies  having  writ- 
ten them.  In  this  way  she  brings  the  imbroglio  to  an  end  and 
her  ''common  sense"  lends  probability  to  her  marriage  at  the 
end  of  the  pl.-n-  with  Eraste  after  he  had  been  sufficiently  pun- 
ished for  his  duplicity.  Eraste  was  rich  as  indicated  by  differ- 
ci\t  nllusions  in  the  play,  while  she,  like  her  brother,  Tircis,  was 
little  blessed  with  worldly  goods. 

Different  as  they  are,  the  two  young  girls,  the  tender  })ut 
inconstant  Melite,  the  practical  but  capricious  Cloris,  are  both 
''young  girls."  Without  attempting  any  profound  psychologi- 
cal analysis,  Corneille  succeeded  in  endowing  his  two  heroines 
with  such  characteristics  and  such  features  of  the  young  girl 
type  that  they  are  enough  to  clearly  differentiate  his  comedy 
from  that  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  role  is  rare  in  the  comedy 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  In  most  cases  there  is  no  place  for 
her  in  the  immoral  plots,  and  when  she  does  appear,  she  bears 
few  of  the  characteristics  of  the  modern  "young  girl"  but 
rather  resembles  the  young  women  of  the  Italian  stage  who  show 
nd  reserve  in  love  but  are  apparently  ready  to  receive  their 
lover  or  lovers  immediately  upon  terms  of  the  great(^st  intimacy. 
They  have  neither  delicacy  nor  even  decency.  To'  this  type^  of 
young  women  belong,  for  example,  the  Genevieve  of  Les  Con- 
tens  (Odet  de  Turnebe)  Grassette  of  Les  EscoUcrs  (Perrin), 
Antoinette  of  La  Rccovnue  (Belleau),  etc. 

Corneille  then,  in  the  Melite,  drew  two  young  women  of  a 
more  elevated  and  refined  type  notwithstanding  a  few  rather 
dubious  scenes  which  were  removed  in  later  editions  of  the  play. 
However,  even  here,  it  is  easy  +o  exaggerate  his  originality  for, 


between  the  comedies  of  the  sixteenth  century  and  this,  liisiirst. 
play,  came  the  pastoral  plays  and  the  pastoral  and  sentimental 
novels,  which,  with  all  their  unreal  and  verbose  sentimentality 
of  shepherd  love,  had  established  a  finer  conception  of-  the  young 
girl  type   (53)  Mclite  resembles  many  a  sentimental  and  confid- 
ing shephcrdness  of  pastoral  novel  and  plays  of  the  1600-1630 
period.     The  capricious  and  practical  Cloris  -too  has  her  'proto- 
type in  quite  a  number  of  shepherdesses  who  are  changeable, 
capricioiis  and  full  of  daring  such  as,  for  example,  the  Stelle  of 
the    Astree.     From    the    pastoral  literature    the    finer    type    of 
young  girl  passed  into  the  novels  and  stories,  taken  or  pretend- 
ing to  be  taken  from  contemporary  life.     One    finds    in    them 
young  girls  with  the  same  characteristics,  the  same  attitude  to- 
ward the  flowery  compliments  of  their  lovers  as  in    the    Mclite 
and  in  the  other  early  plays  of  Corneille.     So,  for  instance,  in 
Les  Amours   cV   Eurymcdon   et   de  Lydie,  the   eighth  story  of 
de  Rosset's  Histoires    dcs    anians    volagcs    dc    ce    temps    (54). 
Eurymedon  finds,  during  a  ball,  occasion  to  present  his  homages 
to  Lydie:    ''Ce  fut  la  qu'  il  luy  dist  qu'  anime  dcs  louauges  que 
tout  le  monde  rendoit  a  son  meritc,  mais  plus  encores  des  eclats 
de  Divinite,  que  luy  mcsme  voyoit  luyre  en  son  beau  visage,  il 
venoit  pour  luy  sacrifier  ses  volontez.    II  la  conjuroit  de  jetter 
les  yeux  plutost  sur  V  excez  de  son  amour,  que  sur  son  merite, 
et  de  ne  dedaigner  point  de  le  tenir  desormais  au  rang  de  ceux 
qui  luy  offroient  tons  les  jours  leurs  libertez.     Lydie  qui  avoit 
deja  quelque  inclination  a  vouloir  du  bien  a  ce  Cavalier,  quoy 
qu'  elle  le  dissimulast,  fit  au  commencement  paroitre  quelque 
petit  traict  de  rigueur,  ainsi  que  ces  belles  font  ordinairenient, 
et  luy  diet  que  si  le  bruict  luy  donnoit  quelque  louange,  on  de- 
voit  attribuer  ceste  gloire  plustost  a  V  opinion  qu'  a  la  verite. 
ttt  pour  le  regard  de  la  divinite  dont  il  luy  parloit.elle  n'  estoit 
pas  si  vaine,  qu'  elle  Ae  recogneust  bien  que  ces.di&cours  estoient 
proferez  par  forme  de  raillerie,  et  non  par  desseinde  la  louer. 
C'  est  pourquoy  voyant  que  les    louanges    qu'    il  ■  luy  ■  donnoit 
estoient  feintes,  elle  jugeoit  aussi  que  ses  volontez  qu'  il  luy 
presentoit  ne  pouvoient  estre  que  feintises.     Eurymedon  repart, 
et.dit  qu*  elle  offensoit  par  trop  sa  beaute,  qui,  veritablement 
belle,  ne  pouvoit  produire  que  des  desseins  pour  la  servir.     lis 
eussent  continue  ce  discours :  mais  parce  que  Lydie  craignoit  que 
quelque  une  de  ses  compagnes  ne  tendist  1'  oreille,  avec  un  doux 


sousris  pria  Eurvmedon  de  •  remettre  ceste  dispute  en  un  autr§ 
lieu."    (p.  424-25). 

Again  the  same- situation  as  in  the  Melite  and  other  early 
plays  of  Corneillet  a  lover  paying  conceited  compliments  to  a 
sweetheart  rather  scornful  of  his  hyperbolic  language,  is  found 
in  other  stories  of  de  Rosset,  as  in  Lcs  Amours  d'  Amador  ct 
de  la  belle  Hypolite.-  {Amans  tyjlages  dc  c€  temps,  p.  464-65)  : 
Tant  de  rares  dons  et  -tant  de  qualitez  qui  luysoient  sur  le  l?eau 
visage  d'  Hypolit-e,  est-oient  autant  de  filets  qui  lioient  estroicte- 
ment  la  liberte  de  ce  Cavalier,  et  qui  luy  ostoient  la  parolle. 
Enfin  sa  langue  venant  a  -se-  delier,  son  coeur  profera  ce  discours 
plein  esgallement  d'  Amour  et  de  respect.  Si  je  pouvois  (belle 
Hypolite)  dire  aussi  belles  parolles,  que  vostre  beaute  me  donne 
de  belles  pensees;  je  m'  efforeerois  de  voiis  representer  et  vostre 
merite  et  ma  passion.  Mais  ou  trouveroit  on  un  esprit  aussi 
disert,  que  vostre  corps  est  beau,-  afin  de  vous  rendre  des  louan- 
ges  semblables  a  vos  -perfections?  II  faut  advouer  que  cela 
estant  impossible,  je  les  dois  seulement  admirer,  de  peur  de  les 
profaner  en  les  louant :  Heureux  si  en  estant  adorateur,  vostre 
divinite  regardoit  d'  un  oeil  favorable  les  voeux,  et  permettoit 
les  sacrifices,  que  le  devoir  et  la  cognoissance  m'  obligent  desor- 

mais  de  luy  rendre La  Belle  qui  avoit  desja  considere  la 

beaute  et  la  grace  de  ce  Cavalier,  et  qui  se  sentoit  aucunement 
ambrasee  d'  un  feu  auquel  nostre  consentement  sert  d'  amorce, 
fit  semblant  de  premier  abord  de  n'  entendre  point  ses  paroles. 
Neantmoins  avec  un  doux  sousris  elle  luy  fit  ceste  responce :  Si 
les  hommes  estoient  aussi  veritables  que  dissimulez,  vous  me 
feriez  (Monsieur)  desja  entrer  en  quelque  vaine  gloire.  Mon 
peu  de  merite,  et  la  croyance  que  j'ay,  que  c'  est  pour  donner 
carriere  a  vostre  bel  esprit,  feront  que  je  tiendray  ce  langage 
ainsi  indifferent .  .  .  .  " 

Ironical  verses  against  flowery  love-declarations  in  the  same 
style  as  found  in  the  Melite  occur  in  the  volume  of  miscellan- 
eous verse,  Le  Banquet  des  Muses  of  the  Rouen  lawyer  Jean 
Auvray  (1623)  :  Here  too  a  complimentary  courtier  suffers  a 
more  or  less  sincere  rebuff  from  his  lady : 


Le  courtisan : 


Mais  r  ame  qui  est  bieu  assise 

N '  astreint  qu '  en  bon  lieu  sa  fi-anchise ; 

Elle  n'  a  poinct  de  passion 


•Si  non  pour  la  perfection; 
Et  si  la  cire  de  ses  aisles 
Se  fond  aux  vives  estincelles 
D'  une  rare  et  grande  beaute, 
Benissant  sa  tenierite 
Elle  fait  sa  gioire  et  son  lucre 
D'  un  si  honorable  sepulchre, 
.,    .  Bien  heureuse  de  s'  abismer 

En  si  grande  et  fameuse  mer. 

Ne  vous  estonnez  done,  madame, 
Si  la  vive  et  charmeuse  flamme 
Qui  sort  de  vcs  yeux,  mes  soleils, 
111'  embrazent  de  feux  nonpareils, 
Je  cerche  au  mal  qui  me  possede 
En  vous  mon  unique  remede, 
Et  si  au  fort  de  mes  douleurs 
J'  implore  vos  rares  faveurs." 

La  dame : 

Monsieur,  ces  facondes  merveilles 

Dont  vous  repaissez  mes  oreilles 

Ne  me  touchent  point  jusqu'au  coeur, 

Je  croy  que  d'  un  style  moqueur. 

Passant  de  1'  honneur  la  barriere, 

Yostre  esprit  se  donne  carriere, 

Et  que  toutes  ces  passions, 

Ces  beautez,  ces  perfections, 

Ces  feux,  cet  amour,  ce  martire, 

Sont  fragments  de  vostre  bien  dire 

Et  r  ornement  de  vos  discours."     (p.  241). 

We  see  then  that  the  common  sense  of  the  young  girls  in 
Corneille's  Mel  it e  was  not  without  examples  in  the  literature 
of  the  period,  and  that  their  anti-preciosity  bears  resemblance 
to  the  attitude  of  other  contemporary  heroines  of  fiction  and 
poetry. 

It  is  reasonably  certain  that  Corneilie,  in  composing  his 
first  play,  looked  about  him  for  material.  The  initial  story  of 
a  lover  supplanted  by  his  friend  in  the  affections  of  a  young 
woman;  the  letters  forged  by  the  disappointed  lover,  the  mad- 
ness of  Eraste,  his  subsequent  recovery  all  that  appears  repeat- 


edly  in  the  literature  of  the  early  seventeenth  century.  The 
characters  are  equally  French.  A  long  line  of  ancestors.,  pre- 
ceded the  love-sceptic  Tircis;  and  Eraste  does  not  differ  from 
the  ordinary  shepherd-rival.  The  young  givls  are  clearly  re- 
flections of  the  novels  of  contemporary  life  of  the  times;  and 
the  nurse  was  a  convention  of  even  longer  standing.  The  plot 
and  development  of  the  Meiite  aie  neither  absolutely  original 
nor  can  they  be  interpreted,  with  any  degree,  of  certainty  as 
entirely  auto-biographical.  At  the  same  time  the  play  does  not  seem 
to  be  a  servile  imitation  dependent  on  a  single  source.  It  seem3  a 
rather  skilful  gathering  of  more  or  less  traditional  scenes  and 
situations  and  types;  an  assembling  of  reminiscences  from  Cor- 
neille's  reading  rather  than  any  direct  transcript  from  the  life 
which  he  observed  and  in  which  he  took  part.  (55).  Yet,  he 
stated  in  his  Examen  de  Meliie,  in  1660 :  La  nouveaute  de  ce 
genre  de  comedie   dont  il  n'  y   a  aucun  exemple  dans   aucune 

langue furent  sans  doute  la  cause  de  ce  bonheur  sur- 

prenant  et  qui  faisoit  alors  tant  de  bruit."  (56).  The  differ- 
ence of  the  Mel  lie  from  the  contemporary  plays,  on  which  Cor- 
neille  prided  himself  in  16G0,  lies  rather  in  the  fact  that  he 
brought,  or  rather  attempted  to  bring,  on  the  stage  characters 
from  the  France  he  knew,  than  in  the  invention  of  a  new  plot. 
Yet,  in  this  respect  he  had  been  preceded  by  the  great  number 
of  novels  which  treated  of  contemporary  themes,  and,  frequently, 
in  the  same  setting  as  in  Corneille's  early  productions:  in  Paris. 

CORNEILLE'S  EARLY  PLAYS  AND  THE  NOVELS  OF 

THE  TIME 

CorneiUe's  Mel  He  differs  from  the  stage  of  his  day  in  that 
the  scene  of  this  pastoral  love-imbroglio  is  laid  in  Paris.  "La 
scene  est  a  Paris."  But  the  love-story  of  the  two  rivals — Eraste 
and  Tircis, — is  not  in  any  way  related  to  this  setting ;  it  remained 
a  pastoral  intrigue,  pervaded  by  the  traditional  pastoral  gallan- 
try. Corneille  's  characters  behave  in  Paris  just  as  do  the  happy 
or  love-lorn  shepherds  in  the  shady  groves  of  d'Urfe's  Forez. 
They  walk  along  the  beaten  path  of  the  pastoral  in  the  rivalries 
which  are  characteristic  of  this  type  of  fiction;  they  adopt  the 
customary  tricks  of  disappointed  lovers;  they  fall  into  the  cus- 
tomary madness  or  despair,  and  end  their  arduous  courtship 
with  the  no  less  conventional  pairing  off  at  the  denouement. 

The  young  Corneille  was  in    perfect    good    faith,  no  doubt, 


■when  he  Galled  his  characters  ''Parisians.'-'  At  the -time  of  the 
UClitc  he  -^as  a  yomig  lawyer  of  the  Provinces,  who  had  no  inti- 
mate acquaintance  with  the  cultivated  Parisian  circles  which  he 
tried  to  depict.  He  did  not  find  his  types  in  the  real  life  of  the 
capital,  for  it  was  only  later  that  he  visited  Paris  for  any  consid- 
erabl*.  time.  The  anecdote  related  by  Thomas  Corneille  and  Fon- 
tenelle.  stating. -that  the  nucleus  of  the  M elite  was  furnished  to 
•the- young  •  Corneille  by  .a  personal-  adventure  at  Rouen,  impli- 
cates-that  he  did- not  depict  lovers  from  the-  refined  Parisian 
drawing -rooms, -but  from  the  more  provincial  surroundings  of  his 
iiative  city.  It  is  to  be  observed,  as  I  have  pointed  out  in  the  pre- 
ceding chapter,  that  rather  than  portraying  types  from  Paris  or 
from  his  o-m  environment,  he  was  largely  reproducing  charact- 
ers and  situations  from  the  contemporary  fiction  or  from  the  con- 
temporary stage. 

Critics -have  generally  attributed  to  Corneille,  at  the  time  of 
his  early  plays,  a  good  deal  of  independ-ent  power  of  realisti<>  ob- 
serVaticm.-  He  is  said  to  have  portrayed  in  them  the  "precieux" 
society  of  his  day.  Yet,  one  finds  in  his  early  productions,  es- 
pecially in-  the  M elite  and  the  Clitandre,  a  number  of  incidents 
•and  situations,  which  could  not  be  taken  directly  from  daily  life. 
Tircis'  credulity  and  Eraste's  mythological  madness,  in  his  first 
play,  cannot  be  classified  as  common  traits  of  the  "honnete 
homme."  His  heroes  are  closely  akin  to  the  shepherds  of  the 
then  flourishing  pastoral,  to  the  "gentleman"  of  the  contempor- 
ary, sentimental  and  pastoral  novels.  Now,  since  Corneille  was 
well  acquainted  with  the  literature  of  the  epoch  (57),  it  is  clear 
enough  that  he  viewed  his  "contemporary"  characters  largely 
through  literary  prototypes,  that  he  modeled  them  after  the  pat- 
tern of  the  "honnete  homme",  as  he  knew  him  through  his  read- 
ings. 

Corneille 's  tendency  toward  the  painting  of  contemporary 
life — which  grows  stronger  and  more  balanced  in  the  three  plays 
following  the  Clitandre — had  been  exemplified  before  and  after 
J630,  by  the  parallel  effort  toward  contemporaneity  which  can  be 
traced  in  a  great  number  of  novels  of  the  time,  in  those  that  un- 
dertook to  depict  "real  life,"  (58)  as  seen,  more  or  less,  through 
the  pastoral  atmosphere.  These  novels  present,  in  this  respect, 
a  marked  contrast  to  the  development  in  theatrical  composition, 
which,  from  1610  to  about  1630,  gave  little  or  no  place  to  the 
French  life  of  the  time.     The  great  variety  of  di-amatic  forms 


prevalent  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  all  re- 
mained alien  to  the  portrayal  of  the  actual  life  of  the  epoch.  The 
tragi-comcdy  showed  a  preference  for  historical  or  foreign  sub- 
.ieets;  the  farce  remained  decidedly  in  the  lower  regions  of  life; 
the  pastoral  clung  to  its  conventional  seUing  of  a  shepherds' 
country;  the  tragedy  reproduced  the  subject-matter  taken  from 
antiquity. 

There  is  no  doulit  that  these  novels,— which  devoted  ranch' 
attention  to  contemporary  life, — influenced  the  stage  in  this  di- 
rection. It  was  quite  a  common  practice  during  the  early  part 
of  the  seventeenth  century  to  adapt  the  plot  of  a  novel  to  the 
stage,  and  it  has  been  said  that  the  tragi-comedy,  with  all  its  ir- 
regularities, was  essentially  an  attempt  to  condense  in  a  few  acts, 
all  the  adventures  of  .a  long  heroic  novel.  Examples  of  such  adap- 
tations are  numerous.  Hardy,  for  example,  took  his  D arise,  from 
de  Rosset's  Amans  volages  de  ce  temps;  his  Gesippe  from  Boccac- 
cio, etc.;  Rotrou  cut  a  play  out  of  Sorel's  Cleagenor  et  Doristce; 
du  Ryer  took  his  Lisandre  et  Caliste  from  a  novel  of  d'Audiguier, 
aud  put  Barclay's  Argenis  on  tlie  stage.  The  late-Greek  novel 
of  Tatios  inspired  his  Cli^ophon,  and  Hai'dy  used  the  same  source 
for  one  of  his  lost  plays.  Du  Hamel  imitated  in  his  tragedy 
.  Acoubar  (1603),  the  novel  of  du  Perier,  Lcs  Amours  de  Pisiion. 
The  Amours  de  Dalchmion  et  de  Deflore,  a  novel  of  J.  Philippes, 
is  put  on  the  stage  as  the  Amours  de  Dalcmcon  by  Est.  Bellone. 
Giboin  took  his  tragi- comedy,  Amours  de  Philandre  et  de  Marizee-, 
(1619)  from  de  Nerveze's  story  of  the  same  title  (1598).  The 
Astree  was  for  years  the  source  of  plot  material  for  de  Scudery, 
Rayssiguier,  and  various  others  (59).  The  playwrights  of  the 
time  delved  with  eager  hands  into  the  treasures  of  fiction  that 
the  novels  opened  for  them. 

The  theories  and  examples  of  the  novelists  Avere  thus  bound 
to  affect  the  composition  of  these  plays  as  well  as  the  literaiy  at- 
mosphere in  gcueral.  -Now,  during  the  16.00-1630  period,  the 
novelists  voiced  many  times  the  need  of  turning  to  contempoi^aiy 
life  for  literary  subjects  and  tried  to  put  their  theories  into  prac- 
tice in  creating  ''real"  men  and  women.  Their  stories  from 
"real"  life,  however,  continued  to  he  filled  with  elements  takeft 
from  the  romancer  of  chivalry,  from  the  Greek  or- the"  pastoral 
novel.  A  magic'an,  a  wonderful  shipwreck,  a  glorious  fight  of 
the  hero  against  overpowering  odds,  or  even  a  satyr,  appear  in  a 
tale,  pretending  to  be  "  entirely  true. ' '    This  curious  mixture  of 


"  vraysemblable "  and  ' '  invraysemblable  "  is  characteristic  of  the 
ehaotic  state  of  the  literature  of  the  time.  Even  in  novels,  which 
made  a  claim  to  truthfulness,  the  elements  of  real  life  and  those 
of  the  pastoral  or  chivalric  romance  are  strangely  blended, 
Guillaume  Coste  for  instance,  in  his  Lcs  Bcrgcncs  dc  Vesper  (60) 
drew  a  picture — remarkable  for  the  time — of  the  love  adventures 
of  some  shepherds,  who  were,  in  reality,  lovers  from  the  class  of 
the  countiy  nobility,  with  their  characteristic  customs.  These 
lovers  are  adorned  with  shepherds'  names,  says  the  writer, 
"pource  qu'il  faut  qu'ils  conduizent  et  gouvernent  Icurs  pensees 
amoureuses,  qui  sont  des  troupeaux  assez  souvent  malaisez  a 
gouverner."  The  elements  of  reality  are  represented  by  clearly 
portrayed  meetings  and  Avalks  in  the  country,  convivial  feasts, 
and  serenades;  the  elements  from  the  pastoral  tradition  by  fights 
with  a  satyr,  wandering  cavaliers,  etc. 

When  a  novel  of  that  type  was  put  on  the  stage,  it  retained 
these  characteristics  and  presented  the  same  mixture  of  the  real 
and  the  unreal.  Hardy's  play,  Dorisc,  taken  from  de  Rosset's 
Amans  volages  de  ce  temps,  furnishes  an  example.  The  Persian 
names  of  some  of  his  heroes  have  no  more  significance  than  the 
shepherd's  names  of  the  Bcrgc.ries  de  Vesper,  for  de  Rosset  claims 
to  picture  contemporary  noblemen.  He  says  that  in  his  book 
"sous  des  noms  empruntcz  sont  contenus  les  Amours  de  plusieurs 
Princes,  Seigneurs,  Gentils-hommes,  &  autres  personnes  de  marque, 
qui  ont  trompez  leurs  Maistresses,  ou  qui  ont  este  trompez  d'elles." 
The  incidents  of  the  story,  and  consequently  of  Hardy's  play,  are 
strikingly  resemblant  to  those  of  Corneille's  M elite.  Two  friends, 
Salmaces  and  Licanor,  love  Doris.  During  the  absence  of  Sal- 
maces,  the  rival,  Licanor,  wins  the  girl  for  himself  by  lying  and 
by  a  letter-trick.  Salmaces  runs  off  to  the  country  and  lives  half- 
mad  in  a  hermitage,  where  he  is  discovered  by  Sydere,  who  loves 
him.  The  "  invraysemblable "  elements  are  then  introduced  in 
this  alleged  ''vraysemblable"  love-story  in  the  form  of  a  female 
magician,  who  discovers  that  the  madness  of  Salmaces  is  occasion- 
ed by  a  secret  charm.  With  her  supernatural  power,  she  brings 
him  back  to  sanity  and  a  double  marriage  ends  the  play.  This 
v.'ork  is  relatively  more  real  than  much  of  the  contemporary  and 
later  production.  And  for  this,  the  influence  of  its  source, — a 
novel  of  contemporary  life. — is  largely  responsible. 

In  the  period  1600-1630,  when  the  general  tendencies  of  the 
theater  were  either  toward  the  pastoral  or  toward  the  extravagant 


tragi-comedy,  these  novels  imitated  thus,  in  a  more  or  less  con- 
ventional manner,  the  life  of  the  time.  But  they  limited  them- 
selves to  the  love  between  noblemen  and  refined  ladies,  for  they 
disdained  "ces  amours  vulgaires  qui  ne  se  pratiquent  qu'entre 
des  ames  de  basse  origine"  (Timothee  de  ChillsiC-Oenvres,  1599). 
Princes  and  princesses  appear  only  by  exception.  The  ordinary 
characters  are  exactly  those  "honnestes  gens"  whom  Corneille 
depicted  in  his  first  phiys.  In  voicing  their  theories,  in  their 
prefaces,  the  novelists  opposed  the  enormous  influence  of  an- 
tiquity as  well  as  the  "foreign  country"  craze  which  later  sent 
so  many  novel-heroes  to  Turkey  or  to  unknown  lands. 

The  anonymous  author  of  the  Amours  du  brave  Lydamas  et 
de  la  belle  Myrtille,  (Toulouse,  1594)  says  that  he  depicts  "des 
Amours  frangois  et  non  estrangers. "  And  du  Souhait  hi  the 
novel,  Poliphile  et  Mellonimphe  (1598),  argues:  "Qu'est  il  be- 
soign  de  mendier  chez  les  anciens  le  tesmoignage  des  effects  de 
I 'amour,  puisque  nostre  siecle  les  faict  naistre!  Ne  croirons  nous 
plustost  a  nos  yeux  qu'  a  nos  oreilles?  Qui  sont  ceux 
tant  amis  de  I'antiquite  et  ennemis  de  leur  age,  qui  donnent 
vie  a  des  histoires  rapportees  de  nos  peres,  pour  ensevelir  celles 
qui  naissent  avec  nous?"  The  author  of  La  Constance  d'Alisee 
et  de  Diane  opposes  the  custom  of  using  foreign  settings  in 
novels :  ' '  Belles  ames  que  la  France  a  nourries  et  eslevees  dans 
son  sein,  pourquoy  allez-vous  mendiant  parmy  les  estrangers  les 
ruynes  d 'amour,  pour  en  faire  parade,  laissant  en  depost  a 
I'oubliance  les  plus  remarquables  tragedies  de  ce  tyran,  advenues 
entre  les  Francois?"  While  insisting  on  the  necessity  of  finding 
inspiration  in  daily  life,  some  novelists  ask  for  more  truth  in  the 
painting  of  love,  for  more  "  vraysemblance. "  The  anonymous  au- 
thor of  the  Amours  de  Melite  et  de  Statiphile  (1609),  claims 
his  adherence  to  these  principles  in  these  terms:  "Helas,  qu'il 
est  besoign  recourir  aux  masures  de  I'antiquite,  remembrer  les 
siecles  passees,  escheler  les  cieux  com  me  nouveaux  Promethees, 

pour  y  desrober  quelque  science  d  'amour uour  ne  tenir 

compte  des  estranges  accidens  qu 'ordinairement  nous  produit 
I'exces  d'une  passion  amoureuse,  en  nos  contrees,  en  I'enclos  de 

nos  villes,  et  de  nos  maisons On  ne  verra  pas  dans  mon 

livre,  des  evenemens  tragiques,  des  fictions  de  Psyche  avec  son 
Cupidon,  ny  les  ruses  d'une  Medee;  mais  la  verite  de  ma  passion, 
le  progrez  de  mes  amoureuses  recherches  et  facheux  accidens 
d'icelles,  la  fidelite  d'un    serviteur    paye    d'inconstance."     The 


sieur  de  la  Regnerye  in  the  Amours  dc  Liniason  et  de  Palinoe 
(1601)  follows  the  same  theory.  He  declares  that  his  story  was 
"tres  veritable",  and  that  he  told  it  "iiaivement." 

FranCj'ois  de  Rosset  in  the  Preface  of  his  Hisioires  tragiques 
de  nostre  Temps  (1st  ed.  1616)  exclaimed  as  so  many  other  novel- 
writers  of  the  time :  "  Ce  ne  sont  pas  des  contes  de  1  'antiquite 
fabulense,  que  je  te  donne  (0  France  mere  de  tant  de  beaux  Es- 
prits,  qui  font  rougir  de  honte  et  la  Grece  et  1 'Italic;)  Ce  sont 
des  Histoires  autant  veritables  que  tristes  et  funestes.  Les  noms 
de  la  plupart  des  personnages  sont  seulement  desguisez  en  ce 
Theatre,  a  fin  de  naffliger  pas  tant  les  families  de  ceux  qui  en 
ont  donne  le  suject " 

The  last  sentence  refers  to  an  important  element  of  contem- 
poraneity in  the  novel  of  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, the  tendency  to  narrate  actual  events — sometimes  embel- 
lished with  very  improbable  incidents — to  flatter  influential  no- 
blemen by  making  them  the  disguised  heroes  of  a  story.  The 
numerous  "Romans  a  clef"  thus  created,  fitted  in  with  a  similar 
tendency  in  the  pastoral  play,  which,  staged  mostly  in  the  castles 
of  the  nobles,  in  many  cases  pretended  to  put  on  the  scene,  under 
a  disguise,  the  constant  or  fickle  loves  of  a  noble  protector  of  let- 
ters. 

One  of  the  stories  of  Rosset 's  Histoires  Tragiques  depicts 
some  incidents  from  the  life  of  Francois  de  Lorraine,  de  Guise, 
"Lieutenant  General  pour  le  Roy  en  Provence."   In  the  Dedicace 

to    him,    it    is    said :    " vous    estes    1  'autheur    de    la    plus 

belle  partie  de  cest  ouvrage.  Vostre  valeur  s'y  est  depeiute  avec 
de  si  vives  couleurs,  que  I'esclat  en  fait  rougir  de  honte  les  plus 

valeureux  de  ce  siecle II  n  'est  pas  besoing  de  reciter 

en  ceste  Epitre  ce  que  tout  le  monde  salt  admirer,  puisque  je  I'ay 
fidellement  descrit  en  1  'une  de  ces  Histoires " 

In  a  similar  way,  a  great  number  of  authors  of  the  be- 
ginning of  the  seventeenth  century  described,  under  assumed 
names,  the  adventures  of  living  personages.  And  this  preoccu- 
pation was  bound  to  give  to  their  work  a  certain  measure  of  real- 
ity and  fidelity  in  the  depicting  of  contemporary  life.  To  this 
category  of  "Romans  a  clef"  belong,  for  example:  Les  amours 
de  la  helle  du  Luc  of  J.  Prevost  (1597).  La  Galatee  et  les  adven- 
tures du  Prince  Astiages  of  A.  Remy  (1625)  : — Histoire  de  la  vie 
et  de  la  niort  d'Arthemise  by  Jean  de  Lannel  (1621)  ; — La  Caritee 
of  Gomberville    (1621) ; — Le   Cleandre  d' Amour   et  de  Mars  of 


Pebrac  de  Montpesat  (1620)  •,—L'Arcadie  Frangoise  of  Ollenix 
de  Mont  Sacre  (1625)  ; — Le  Roman  des  chevaliers  de  la  Gloire  of 
de  Rosset  (1612)  ;  Romant  royal  ou  histoire  de  nostre  temps 
of  Piloust  (1621)  ;— Theatre  d'Histoires  of  Phil,  de  Belleville 
(1610)  ; — Cleodante  et  Hermclinde  ou  Histoire  de  la  Cour  of  A. 
Humbert  (1629);  Endijmion  of  Gombauld  {1&24:)  ;— Histoire  des 
Amans  vohujes  de  ce  temps  of  de  Rosset  (1616) — Roman  de  la 
Cour  de  Briixelles  of  Puget  de  la  Serre  (1628)  Polyxene  of 
Moliere  d'  Essertines  (1625)  and  other  novels  or  collections  of 
stories. 

Some  authors  claim  that  their  stories  are  entirely  true  and 
even  add  in  some  cases,  that  they  were  actually  copied  from  real 
life.  Reze  calls  his  Desespere  contentement  d' Amour  (1599)  an 
"Histoire  veritable  et  advenue."  So  does  du  Souhait  for  his 
Amours  de  Poliphile  et  Mellonimphe  (1599)  and  his  Les  Propri- 
etez  d' Amour  (1601).  To  the  same  class  belong:  Les  amours 
d'Amisidore  et  de  Chrysolite,  "histoire  veritable  ou  est  descrite 
rinconstance  des  amoureux  de  ce  temps"  of  du  Bail  (1623); — 
L'Olympe  d' amour,  histoire  non  faint e  of  Henri  du  Lisdam 
(1609)  ; — Les  fidelles  et  constant es  amours  de  Lisdamus  et  de 
Cleonymphe  of  Henri  du  Lisdam  (1615),  where  the  hero  is  clear- 
ly the  writer  himself ; — the  Histoire  tragi-comique  de  nostre  temps 
sous  les  noms  de  Lysandre  et  de  Caliste  of  d'Audiguier  (1615)  ; — 
Les  agreables  diversitez  d'Amour  of  N.  Moulinet  (1613); — 
Le  tableau  des  deserts  enchantes  of  N.  Piloust  (1614)  containing 
stories  "aussi  pitoyables  que  veritables" — Marechal's  La  Chryso- 
lite ou  le  secret  des  romans  (1627) — Les  Amours  de  Philandre, 
gentilhomme  Bourguignon,  of  Des  Escuteaux  (1621) — La  Mort 
de  VAmotir  oil  se  list  la  veritable  et  nouvelle  histoire  des  amours 
de  Calianthe  et  Florifile  of  Pr.  Gauthier  (1616),— L'Histoire  des 
amours  tragiques  de  ce  temps  of  Isaac  de  Laffemas  (1607) — and 
a  number  of  other  novels  and  collections  of  stories  whose  preten- 
sion to  depict  contemporary  life  is  more  or  less  justified. 

Men  of  greater  renown  than  most  of  these  now-forgotten 
novel-writers,  acclaimed  the  theory.  The  pious  and  prolific  bishop 
Camus  reproached  the  authors  of  his  time  for  disguising  in 
ancient  frocks,  the  incidents  of  daily  life  and  love.  He  ventured 
his  criticism  as  follows  in  the  Preface  of  his  Clear este,  "histoire 
frangoise-espagnolle,     representant     le     tableau     d'une     parfaite 

amitie"  (1626)   vous  a  qui  un  evenement  arrive  en  des 

lieux  voysins,   ou  que  vous  frequentez  d 'ordinaire,  fait  plaisir, 


aurez  sans  doute  plus  de  plaisir  d  ouir  ce  qui  s'est  passe  aupres 
de  vostre  demeure,  que  si  ce  succes  estoit  avenu  en  des  eudroits 

plus  esloignez Et  cepeudaut  il  y  a  des  esprits  je  ne 

sQay  comment  faicts,  qui  ne  peuvent  se  contenter  que  par  le  recit 
des  histoires  aiiciennes,  encore  que  ce  soient  des  choux  cuits  et 
recuits  a  taut  de  fois  qu'ils  exeitent  mi  desgoust  plustost  qu'ils 
ne  donnent  de  I'appetit;  ou  si  elles  sont  modernes,  qui  les  veulent 
des  pais  si  esloignez  de  leur  connoissance  qu'on  n'en  puisse  avoir 

de  certitude  asseuree De  moy,  j '  ay  tousjours  estime  que 

nous  ne  devions  point  aller  chercher  si  loing  de  nous  ce  qui  estoit 
proche,  soit  pour  les  lieux,  soit  pour  le  temps,  et  qu'il  ne  falloit 
point  emprunter  des  livres  escrits  ce  que  Ton  peut  pescher  dans 
les  evenements  (lui  tombent  devant  nos  yeux,  et  dont  nous  sommes 
temoins  irreprochables.     Cependant  plusieurs  escrivains  ignorans- 

ce  secret pour  multiplier  leurs  f antes  en  pensant  bien 

faire desguisent  a  I'antique  ce  qui  est  moderne,  habillent 

a  I'estranger  ce  qui  est  domestique,  mauvais  tailleurs  et  cuisiniers. 
Mais  aussi  de  releguer  en  Asie,  en  Affrique,  ou  en  Amerique  ce 
qui  est  avenu  parmi  nous,  et  feindre  des  religions  profanes,  ou 
des  lieux  que  les  Cosmographes  out  de  la  peine  a  trouver  dans 
leurs  cartes,  c'est  une  extremite  qui  ne  peut  estre  appreuvee." 
(61).  The  heroes  of  the  devout  novelist,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  fre- 
quently belong  to  the  middle-class  of  the  time.  G.  Bayer  {Pierre 
Camus  und  seine  Romane  1906)  has  shown  that  some  of  the  stor- 
ies he  narrates  are  based  on  actual  incidents  of  Camus'  own  life 
or  of  that  of  his  acquaintances.  Other,  however,  have  too  strong 
a  flavour  of  the  "  invraysemblable "  to  be  a  real  picture  of  daily 
incidents  truthfully  observed.  And  frequently  his  confessed  in- 
tention to  prove  in  his  tales  the  superiority  of  the  religious  voca- 
tion distorts  his  point  of  view.  Notwithstanding  these  shortcom- 
ings, his  numerous  works  were  relatively  more  "  vraysemblable " 
than  a  great  part  of  the  contemporary  literature  and  they  in- 
creased, in  this  way,  the  growing  tendency  toward  more  truth  in 
literary  art.  He  was  as  much  an  outspoken  enemy  of  the  exag- 
gerations of  the  ''roman  d'aventure"  and  of  the  pastoral  novel 
as  Sorel  or  Mareschal.  He  even  claimed  that  he  wrote  his  works 
with  the  intention  of  combating  their  nefarious  influence.  "Or, 
pour  terrasser  tant  de  livres  fabuleux,  je  n 'entreprends  pas  mon 
combat  de  droit  front,  comme  si  je  refutais  des  heresies.  Car  il 
n'est  point  besoin  de  se  mettre  en  peine  de  prouver  I'obscurite 
des  tenebres,  ni  de  montrer  la  faussete  de  ces  romans,  bergeries, 


aventures,  chevaleries  et  autres  fatras,  qui  se  confessent  fabuleux 
en  leiirs  prefaces,  et  dont  la  lecture  pleine  de  caprice,  de  vers,  de 
feintes,  d'impossibilites,  d 'absurdites,  d'enchantements,  d 'ex- 
travagances, et  pareilles  bagatelles,  fait  assez  eonnaitre  Timper- 
tinence.  Ce  serait,  comme  dit  I'apotre,  combattre  centre  I'air  et 
courir  sans  but,  ou  tout  au  plus  imiter  cet  empereur  faineant  qui 
ne  faisait  la  guerre  qu'aux  mouches.  De  quelle  fagon  est-ce  done 
que  je  taehe  de  defaire  mes  adversaires?  C'est  par  diversion  et 
comme  Jacob  fit  a  Esau,  par  supplantation,  mettant  des  revela- 
tions chretiennes,  veritables  et  utiles  a  la  place  de  celles  qui  sont 
profanes,  fabuleuses,  et  non  seulement  in  utiles,  mais,  pour  la  plus 
grande  part  pernicieuses. "  (62)  Among  his  contemporary  nov- 
els may  be  mentioned :  PHronille,  accident  pitoyahle  de  nos  jours 
(1610),  La  Memoire  de  Darie  (1620),  Elise,  evenement  tragique 
de  nostre  temps  (1621),  Dorothee  (1625),  Flaminio  et  Caiman 
(1626),  Aloph  ou  le  Parastre  malheureux,  histoire  frangaise 
(1626),  Honorat  et  Aurelio  (1628),  Marianne  (1629),  Les  spec- 
tacles d'horreur,  ou  se  decouvrent  plusieurs  tragiques  effets  de 
nostre  siecle  (1630),  L'Amphithetre  sanglant  (1630),  etc.  In 
1629  Camus  went  to  Rouen  as  vicar  to  the  archbishop  FranQois 
de  Harlay  for  whom,  in  1633,  Corneille  wrote  his  "Excusatio." 
It  is  thus  very  likely  that  the  poet  knew  Camus  and  his  works  at 
the  very  time  that  he  was  writing  his  Melite. 

Among  the  novels  taking  inspiration  from  contemporary  life, 
a  number  are  found  which  tell  the  adventures  of  lovers  of  the 
capital  and  of  the  court,  and  introduce  certain  parts  of  ParLs  as 
a  setting.  In  view  of  Corneille 's  portrayal  on  the  stage  of  the 
same  category  of  lovers  in  the  same  milieu,  they  may  be  styled 
forerunners  in  prose  of  his  endeavour  in  verse.  The  anonymous 
Marianne  de  Filomele  (1596)  is  called  "histoire  advenue,  il  n'y 
a  longtemps  en  ceste  ville  de  Paris."  Camus  designates  his  Mari- 
anne ou  I'  innocent e  victime  as  an  Evenement  tragique,  arrive 
au  faubourg  St.  Germain,  and  his  La  pieuse  Julie  (1625)  as  an 
histoire  parisienne.  A  number  of  novels  relate  incidents  which 
occurred  at  the  court,  and  sketch  living  courtiers  under  assumed 
names.  The  more  psychological  novels  furnish,  for  instance.  Les 
diverses  Affections  de  Minerve  of  d'Audiguier  (1625),  an  inter- 
esting study  of  a  young  woman,  an  artful  coquette,  surrounded 
by  her  various  suitors,  like  Corneille 's  Veuve.  The  scene  is  laid 
in  Paris,  as  it  is  for  La  Floride  of  du  Verdier  (1624)  which  pre- 
sents a  similar  subject.     These  two  books  lead  us  to  that  other 


study  of  a  coquette'.  Chrysulitc  on  le  secret  des  romans  of  A. 
Mareschal  (1627)  in  which  "Athens"  is  a  transparent  mask  for 
Paris.  In  his  Preface  he  defends  stronjjly  the  "  vray-semblable" 
and  the  contemporaneity  of  material.  He  finds  in  the  novels  of 
his  time,  "rien  de  solide,  rien  de  vraysemblable,  ni  qui  se  puisse 
rapporter  aux  moeurs  et  a  la  puissance  des  hommes,  ou  du  veri- 
table cours  du  temps  et  des  siecles Voyant que  jusques 

ici  tous  ceux  qui  se  sont  picquez  en  ce  genre  d'ecrire  nous  ont 
vendu  le  fard  pour  le  vray  teint,  et  ont  donne  une  face  a  leurs 
livres,  (jui  pour  estre  pleine  de  piperies,  de  mensojjnes  et  d'impos- 

sibilites.  a  pu  entretenir  et  abuser  beaucoup  d'esprits J'ai 

voulu  reduire  a  nostre  portee  ce  faste  menteur,  et  cet  orgeuil  qui 

ne  sert  que  pour  faire  une  pompe  au  dessus  des  nues Ici 

je  n'ay  rien  mis  qu'un  homme  ne  peust  faire,  je  me  suis  tenu 
dans  les  termes  d'une  vie  privee,  afin  que  chacun  se  peust  mouler 
sur  les  actions  que  je  descry,  et  je  ne  me  suis  mis  de  I'antiquite 
que  pour  donner  une  couleur  estranpere  au  bien  ou  au  mal  de 
nostre  temps."  Sorel,  who  exercised  a  very  potent  influence  in 
the  direction  of  contemporaneity  of  material  had  attempted  the 
portrayal  of  contemporary  life  before  illustrating;  his  theories  in 
a  satirical  way  with  his  Berger  extravagant.  His  Palais  d'An- 
gelie  (1632)  is  composed  of  a  number  of  love-stories,  told  by  girls 
and  young  men,  and  each  tale  starts  or  finishes  by  an  abduction. 
In  his  Preface  he  says:  "Je  me  suis  esloigne  du  tout  de  ces  his- 
toires  monstrueuses  qui  n'ont  aucune  vraysemblance.  Je  ne  rac- 
onte  que  des  actions  qui  se  peuvent  faire  selon  le  temps."  One 
of  the  stories,  Olynthe,  (63)  takes  us  to  the  fair  of  St.  Germain, 
to  the  Gallerie  du  Palais,  etc.  His  observations  of  the  higher 
bourgeoisie  are  interesting  in  view  of  the  appearance  of  these 
types  on  the  stage  a  few  years  later.  With  Les  Nouvelles  Fran- 
Qoises  (1623)  he  preserves  to  a  certain  extent  the  modernity  of 
the  subject,  although  he  introduces  too  many  "invraysemblable" 
adventures,  atrocious  fights  with  Turkish  pirates,  hidden  treas- 
ures, shipwrecks,  etc.  Notwithstanding  this  concession  to  the 
taste  of  the  time,  some  stories  of  the  book  take  place  in  Paris,  in 
the  Tuilleries  or  the  Bois  de  Vincennes,  as  for  example,  Les  Trois 
Amans.  Sorel,  like  the  others,  insists  upon  the  necessity  of  turn- 
ing to  contemporary  subjects,  and  he  uses  the  identical  terms  of 

Camus:     "Beautez vous  aurez  sans  doute  plus  de  plaisir 

d 'entendre  une  histoire  qui  s'est  passee  en  des  lieux  que  vous  fre- 
quentez  ordinairement,  qu'une  autre,  dont  tous  les  succes  seroient 


reservez  en  d'autres  endroits.  Cependaiit  plusieurs  qui  ifjnorant 
ce  secret,  ne  vous  donnent  que  des  histoires  des  plus  esloijjcnez, 
lesquelles  ne  vous  scauroient  si  bien  toucher  Tame,  et  commettent 
line  faute  en  pensant  bien  faire,  desguisent  le  plus  souveiit  ce 
qui  est  avenu  en  nostre  contree  en  I'habillant  a  Test  range  re.  Bien 
qu'  ils  ayeiit  acquis  du  renom,  je  ne  les  veux  pas  suivre  en  cela, 
croyant  que  la  gloire  ne  leur  a  pas  este  donnee  judicieusement." 
(Page  555).  In  his  Franoion  (1622)  Sorel  repeats,  in  satyrical 
form,  the  demand  for  contemporary  material  and  greater  '*vray- 
semblance. "  lie  speaks  of  a  shepherd-novel  in  the  following 
terms:  "Les  bergers  y  sont  philosophes  et  font  I'amour  de  la 
meme  sorte  que  le  plus  gallant  homme  du  monde.  A  quel  propos 
tout  ceci?  Que  I'auteur  ne  donne-t-il  a  ces  personnages  la  qualite 
de  chevaliers  bien  nourris?  Leur  fit  il,  en  cet  etat,  faire  des  mir- 
acles de  prudence  et  de  bien  dire,  Ton  ne  s'en  etonneroit  point 
comme  d'un  prodige.  L'histoire  veritable  ou  feinte,  doit  repre- 
senter  les  choses  an  plus  pres  du  naturel ;  autrement  c'est  une 
fable  qui  ne  sert  qu'a  entretenir  les  enfants  au  coin  du  feu,  non 
pas  les  esprits  murs,  dont  la  vivacite  penetre  partout. "  And 
later  on  in  his  Bihliothcque  Francoise  (64)  he  repeats  while  pass- 
ing judgment  on  his  own  early  novels:  "Ce  ne  sont  point  de  ces 
grands  sujets  qu'on  appelle  Heroiques,  ou  il  ne  paroist  que  des 
Roys  et  des  Conquerans  sur  la  scene :  Ce  sont  des  avantures  de 
quelques  personnes  de  mediocre  condition,  mais  on  y  trouvera 
possible  de  la  vray-semblance,  et  le  stile  est  accommode  au  sujet." 

The  theory  of  the  description  of  contemporary  life  in  fiction 
had  thus  been  voiced  and  exemplified  abundantly  in  a  number 
of  novels  which  were  in  favour  at  the  time  of  Corneille's  youth. 
This  constant  demand  for  contemporaneity  and  truth  in  literary 
art — also  reiterated  by  Theophile  de  Viau — hardly  could  remain 
without  influence  upon  the  stage  of  the  time.  Yet,  as  far  as  is 
known,  it  was  only  about  1630  that,  rather  suddenly,  French  con- 
temporary life  appeared  on  the  stage.  It  is  quite  probable  that 
before  that  date,  Hardy  treated  in  some  of  his  lost  plays  subject 
matter  taken  from  the  life  of  the  times.  If  rediscovered,  they 
would  illuminate  fully  the  meaning  of  Corneille's  words,  that  he 
began  to  write  following  the  example  of  "feu  Hardy."  Since 
Hardy  constantlj^  took  subjects  from  novels  and  novelettes,  it 
would  be  difficult  to  conceive  that  in  his  restless  hunt  for  sub- 
jects to  be  staged  in  his  hundreds  of  plays,  he  would  have  left  un- 
touched the  rich  and  inviting  source  of  inspiration  to  be  found 


in  the  novel  of  contemporary  tendencies,  of  which  he  made  use 
for  his  Dorisc.  Amonj;  his  known  plays  some  are  derived  from 
novels  and  stories,  from  Cervantes,  Boccaccio  Greene,  etc.  Par- 
ticularly sifrnificant  is  it  that  Hardy's  Dorise — as  pointed  out 
above — is  very  similar  in  characterization,  construction,  and  at- 
mosphere to  Corneille's  M elite.  Corneille's  early  plays  have  a 
common  trait:  they  all  sta^e  a  pastoral  love-imbroglio  more  or 
less  successfully  interwoven  with  a  realistic  setting.  Exactly  in 
this,  lies  their  striking  resemblance  to  a  number  of  contemporary 
novels  which  show  the  same  method  of  composition. 

The  problem  which  Corneille,  at  his  debut,  had  to  solve  was, 
to  combine  a  certain  measure  of  contemporary  truth  with  an  arti- 
ficial pastoral  love-imbroglio.  He  solved  it  as  before  him  novel- 
writers  had  done  by  dropping  the  most  unreal  scenes  of  the  pas- 
toral plots,  the  echoes,  the  satyrs,  the  magicians,  and  by  trans- 
posing the  remaining  love-story  into  a  well-known  setting.  That 
his  sense  of  the  *'real"  was,  at  first,  not  alwaj's  sure,  is  shown  by 
his  introduction  into  the  plot  of  his  Melite,  such  hackneyed  and 
mythological  scenes  as  those  of  the  madness  of  Eraste.  Yet  we 
cannot  doubt  that  he  Avas  helped  in  his  attempt  to  depict  contem- 
porary life  by  examples  of  similar  tendencies  in  the  "quelques 
modernes"  which  he  confessed  to  have  read  at  the  time  of  his 
debut   (65). 

For  even  the  pastoral  literature  of  the  times  was  not  alto- 
gether artificial  and  unreal istically  imaginative.  Tinder  the  im- 
pulse tOAvard  the  vraysemblable  and  toward  more  fidelity  to  na- 
ture Avhich  grows  stronger  in  the  first  decades  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  all  that  was  actual  and  living  in  the  pastoral  plays  of 
the  time  w^as  brought  to  the  foreground  and  disengaged  from  the 
unessential  and  traditional  episodes  of  Spanish  and  Italian  origin. 
After  all,  the  pastoral  plays  of  the  time  were  more  real  than  we 
now  suppose.  They  had  a  certain  bearing  upon  the  life  of  the 
period  which  time  has  dimmed  for  us  and  made  difficult  to  esti- 
mate. 

To  us,  no  relation  at  all  seems  to  exist  between  those  tradi- 
tional satyrs,  echoes,  sighing  shepherds,  and  capricious  shepherd- 
esses, and  the  real  men  and  women  of  the  epoch.  Yet,  many  writ- 
ers of  pastorals  had  symbolical  intentions  and  brought  on  the 
stage  real  characters  disguised  as  shepherds.  They  wrote  for 
court-circles  and  affected  to  represent  "les  aventures  de  quel- 
ques  grands  princes"    (66)    under    the    transparent  veil  of  the 


shepherd's  tale  then  in  vogue.  In  the  introduction  of  the  Astree, 
Honore  d'Urfe  says  that  nobody  ought  to  wonder  at  the  refined 
language  of  his  shepherds  as  they  are  no  real  rustics,  but  well- 
bred  noblemen  and  women,  who  oidy  took  on  this  disguise  to  en- 
able them  to  lead  a  more  varied  and  interesting  life.  He  defends 
his  symbolical  attitude  by  pointing  to  the  theater  of  the  time, 
where,  he  says,  the  shepherds  were  dressed  in  lace  and  silk,  and 
carried  a  gilded  shepherd's  crook.  La  Mesnardiere,  in  his 
Poetique  (1640),  holds  that  the  poets  should  lend  only  fine  feel- 
ings and  sublime  discourse  to  the  shepherds.  He  takes  the  point 
of  view  that  a  pastoral  play  is  a  description  of  the  court,  where 
it  is  impossible  to  find  "des  dames  laides  et  stupides." 

For  the  courtier  of  1600-1630,  the  dreamland  of  Arcadia,  the 
realm  of  love,  was  not  blossoming  "somewhere  out  of  the  world." 
It  was  the  country  dreamed  of  by  every  perfect  lover,  a  country 
of  eternal  flowers,  clear  streams,  mysterious  woods,  and  glorious 
evenings,  through  which  a  sublimated  love  would  lead  them.  It 
had  for  them  the  reality  of  a  poetic  fancy,  gilding  the  cold 
facts  of  daily  life.  They  adopted  this  disguise,  these  names,  and 
these  manner.s,  half  through  fashion,  half  through  sympathy  for 
its  artificial  but  refined  poetry.  Half  sincere,  half  make-believe 
in  play,  they  identified  themselves  with  the  shepherds  of  the  pas- 
torals, who  were  all  "perfect  courtiers"  in  pseudo-rustic  dis- 
guise. They  named  their  sweethearts  after  these  shepherdesses 
of  their  favorite  stories.  Circles  and  academies  were  founded 
where  the  fictitious  shepherd's  existence  passed  from  the  stage 
into  actual  life.  "Tons  etaient  frappes."  Court-circles  became 
a  sort  of  continuous  masquerade,  in  which  poets  and  men  of 
learning,  the  rich  bourgeoisie  and  officials,  and  even  grave  the- 
ologians and  dashing  generals  took  part.  All  followed  the  vogue. 
The  influence  of  the  Astree  on  the  Hotel  de  Rambouillet  is  well 
known.  The  German  princes  offered  to  d'Urfe  the  presidency  of 
their  shepherds'  circle,  while  Vauquelin  des  Yveteaux  lived  in 
the  park  of  his  hotel,  in  shepherd's  dress,  wearing  a  splendid 
straw-hat  with  an  inside  of  red  satin,  and  guided  through  the 
well-kept  alleys  an  herd  of  imaginary  sheep  (67).  There  was,  in 
a  word,  a  perpetual  reaction  from  the  pastoral  plays  and  novels 
upon  the  elegant  life,  and  from  this  upon  the  literature.  The 
general  tendency  to  the  rustic  disguise  was  not  exclusively  an 
absurd  and  paradoxial  fashion.  It  corresponded  to  a  certain 
reality  in  the  mind  of  the  spectators.     It  had  a  symbolical  bear- 


ing  on  real  life,  and  the  love-stories  represented  seemed  not  so 
absurdly  unreal  as  they  now  seem  to  us.  The  audience  often  felt, 
no  doubt,  that  a  real  love-story  was  being  told  under  the  pastoral 
mask.  And  it  was  precisely  this  love-story  which  acquired  a 
greater  directness  and  reality  as  1630  is  approached.  It  is  this 
tendency  toward  actuality  and  verisimilitude,  toward  stressing 
the  love-story  in  the  pastoral  play  more  than  the  conventional  ac- 
cessories which,  no  doubt,  was  fostered  by  the  novels  of  the  time 
which  depicted,  more  or  less  successfully,  the  actual  life  of  the 
times. 

Some  hesitating  realism  appears  already  here  and  there  in 
the  pastoral  plays  just  before  1630 ;  some  of  them  announce  the 
coming  change  by  some  of  their  scenes  or  by  their  general  spirit. 
A  few  examples  may  be  given :  the  pastoral  play  Aristhene  of  P. 
Troterel  (1626) — a  writer  whose  publisher  was  usually  Corneille's 
friend  David  du  Petit-Val — almost  attained  an  imitation  of  reality 
in  the  scene  of  a  ti-ial  where  no  solemn  druid  priest  pronounces 
a  heaven-sent  sentence,  as  in  the  pastoral  plays,  but  where  a  real 
judge  appears  surrounded  by  his  court.  The  cross-examination 
which  ensues  is  in  real  comedy-style.  The  sieur  de  la  Morelle  in 
his  Philis  ou  V  amour  contraire  (1627-28)  paints  the  conflicting 
aspirations  of  a  prudent  father  and  a  liberty-loving  daughter  in 
a  way  denoting  a  closer  observation  of  reality  than  was  the  cus- 
tom generally  on  the  stage  of  the  period.  And  Mareschal,  who 
with  his  novel  Chrysolite  had  already  entered  a  plea  for  vray- 
semblance, — derived  from  the  adventures  of  light-hearted  Hylas 
in  the  Astree,  a  pastoral  which  approaches  the  style  of  the  com- 
edy L'Inconstance  d' Hylas  (1629-30)  (68).  The  chorus  and  the 
echoes  disappear  from  the  plays  before  or  around  that  time  (69). 
The  satyr  already  humanized  by  Hardy,  has  no  role  at  all  in 
some  tragi-comedie-pastorales   (70). 

Thus  we  perceive  how  the  fundamental  love-story  of  the  pas- 
toral play  disengaged  itself  from  the  superfluous  and  unreal  em- 
bellishments and  episodes.  This  can  be  explained  by  the  greater 
demand  for  realism  fostered  by  the  novel  of  contemporary  ten- 
dencies, by  the  ironical  attacks  upon  the  invraysemblable  of  the 
pastoral  literature  by  Sorel,  Mareschal,  and  Camus,  while  it  was 
no  doubt  greatly  fostered  by  the  Ballets  wherein  types  of  the 
real  life  of  the  time  appeared  (71).  When  the  exaggerated  and 
unreal  episodes  were  dropped,  there  remained  the  eternal  story  of 
a  true  love — as  treated  in  Corneille's  early  plays — crossed  by  an 


envious  rival  or  by  avaricious  parents  or  by  the  accidents  of  fate, 
ending  with  a  general  triumph  for  the  lovers  and  with  the  tra- 
ditional marriages  of  all  the  parties  concerned.  But  it  was  the 
construction  of  plot  which  was  changed  and  simplified,  rather 
than  the  characterization.  The  heroes  of  the  "contemporary" 
play  remain  true  to  the  characteristics  of  the  gentlemen-shepherd 
of  the  pastoral  and  of  the  sentimental  novel ;  the  lovers  are  still 
adorned  with  shepherd  names ;  they  still  speak  largely  in  precious 
"style  Nerveze";  they  are  easily  deceived  with  false  reports  or 
by  a  letter;  they  write  poetry  and  complain  in  melodious  verse; 
they  are  tender-hearted,  elegant,  brave  and  constant,  or  they 
make  a  display  of  methodic  inconstancy  after  the  manner  of 
Hylas  in  the  Astree.  Suicide  and  madness  are  the  ordinary  ef- 
fects of  a  real  or  supposed  infidelity.  But  the  consequences  of 
their  acts  of  despair  are  rarely  tragic.  Those  who  jump  in  the 
rivers  are  rescued,  those  who  retire  to  the  desert  are  brought 
back,  those  who  go  mad  recover  and  the  rustic  pipes  play  the 
dance  hymns  of  the  happy  couples  at  the  final  day  of  happiness. 

If  this  evolution  of  the  pastoral  play  toward  a  greater  reality, 
under  the  influence  of  the  novels  and  the  stories  of  contemporary 
life,  is  taken  into  account,  the  connection  of  Corneille's  early 
plays  with  the  literary  evolution  of  the  times  will  be  less  proble- 
matic. 

If  the  current  in  French  literature  of  1600-1630  toward  the 
painting  of  contemporary  life  and  toward  more  truthfulness  in 
characterization  had  affected  the  young  Corneille  alone  among  the 
playwrights  around  1630,  it  might  be  called  an  individual  case, 
of  which  no  general  principle  could  be  deduced.  But  the  same 
phenomenon  is  to  be  observed  about  this  same  time,  in  the  work 
of  other  playwrights,  influenced  by  the  same  general  literary  ten- 
dencies. They  attempted  to  bring  contemporary  life  on  the  stage 
without  the  Melite  having  exerted  any  influence  upon  their  work. 
Corneille's  bitter  and  opponent  in  the  Cid  quarrel,  Claveret, 
seems  to  have  produced  at  the  time  of  the  Melite  his  play  Angel ie 
ou  I' esprit  fort  (1629-1630)  (72)  in  which  he  shows  really  closer 
and  more  critical  observation  of  contemporary  humanity  than 
Corneille  in  the  Melite.  The  plot  of  the  play  is  weak,  though 
Claveret  was  very  proud  of  having  observed  all  the  rules.  It  con- 
sists chiefly  in  the  amusing  courtship  paid  by  suitors  of  various 
kinds  to  the  three  bewitching  daughters  of  Cloridan.  Two  of 
the  wooers  are  especially  interesting  from  the  point  of  view  of 


the  characterization  of  contemporary  life:  Criton,  I'Esprit  Fort, 
and  his  satelite,  Nicandre,  I'Esprit  Doux.  The  sharp-witted  An- 
gelie,  one  of  the  dauj^hters  of  Cloridan  depicts  I'Esprit  Fort: 

Ce  rafiFine  Cliton  est  un  homme  a  la  mode, 

Dont  le  seul  entretien  vaut  bien  qu'on  s 'incommode! 

Affecter  en  parlant  un  ton  imperieux ; 

Blamer  le  feu  d 'amour  mais  en  feindre  en  tons  lieux; 

En  effet  n 'aimer  rien,  vouloir  qu'une  maitresse, 

Admire  leurs  discours  et  leur  fasse  caresse; 

Publier  des  faveurs  que  jamais  ils  n'ont  eucs 

Parle-t-on  de  Tetat,  faire  les  politiques, 

Tantot  paraitre  froids,  reveurs,  melancholiques. 

Et  puis  se  reveillant  de  ce  profond  sommeil, 

Soutenir  qu'ils  out  vu  des  taches  au  soleil. 

Pester  contre  le  sort,  le  destin,  la  fortune, 

Et  ne  suivre  jamais  la  creance  commune 

Dire  un  mot  des  bons  vers,  puis  y  faire  une  glose, 

Jurer  que  Saint  Martin  fait  mieux  que  Bellerose; 

Lorsqu'on  les  contredit,  faire  les  mutines: 

Un  collet  en  desordre,  un  manteau  sur  le  nez 

This  style  resembles  more  Corneille's  manner  in  the  Veuve, 
the  Galerie  du  Palais,  and  La  Place  Royal e  than  the  M elite.    The 
satire  is  less  pronounced  in  the  Melite  than  in  the  latter  plays 
with  the  exception  of  the  character  of  a  fop,  Philandre,  who  talks 
"en  style  Nerveze."     Claveret  manifestly  had  read  the  satirical 
writers  of  the  time,   Regnier,  Courval-Sonnet,  Jean  Auvray  and 
others,  and  he  betrayed  their  influence  in  the  sketch  of  his  Esprit 
Fort.     And  for  the  plays  following  the  Clitandre,  Corneille  also 
seems  to  have  imitated  the  tone  of  the  satyrists.     Even  as  Cor- 
neille's characters,  for  instance,  in  the  Galerie  du  Palais,  the  Es- 
prit Fort  gives  his  opinions  about  the  literature  of  the  day: 
"Ah!    J'oublie  a  vous  dire  une  plaisante  chose: 
Criton  dit  que  I'Astree  est  un  sot  livre  en  prose, 
Que  Malherbe  en  son  temps  n'entendait  rien  aux  vers, 
Comme  il  porte  tou jours  son  manteau  de  travers. 
Figurez  vous,  Monsieur  qu'il  a  I'esprit  de  meme 

Claveret 's  chief  defect  in  his  play  is  that  it  remains  too 
much  a  literary  satire.  Corneille's  Melite,  less  happy  and  realis- 
tic in  characterization,  surpasses  it  by  its  lively  action,  by  its 
clever  arrangement  and  succession  of  scenes,  qualities  which  re- 
veal the  born  playwright. 


Another  eoniinon  feature  of  both  plays  is  their  satire  of  pre- 
ciosity and  exaggerated  compliments  a  la  mode.... One  of  the 
girls  makes  fun  of  the  fine-mannered  lover  who,  in  his  verses,  had 
called  her  a  "soleil  incendiaire"  much  after  the  fashion  of  Cor- 
neille's  heroines  in  the  Melite  and  the    Veuve.     She    says:     "Je 

crains  en  m  'arretant  de  vous  reduire  en  cendre "  and  about 

his  verses:  "Je  vais  les  rendre  au  feu,  puisqu'ils  sont  tout  de 
flamme...."  And  when  Criton  indulges  in  "parler  Phebus", 
Angelie  does  not  show  any  more  enthusiasm  than  Corneille's 
Melite  or  his  Veuve  for  his  far  fetched  compliments  and  conven- 
tional flattery : 

Qui  se  pourrait  resoudre  a  ne  pas  vous  aimer, 

Puisque  aux  beautes  d 'esprit  celle  du  corps  sont  jointes? 

Vos  cheveux  seulement  savent  faire  des  pointes, 

Vos  boucles  des  prisons,  les  plus  petits  des  traits, 

Amour  sur  votre  front  met  un  arc  tout  expres. 

Angelie:    Monsieur,  je  suis  d'  humeur  a  rever  aujourd'hui. 

If  Claveret  did  not  disguise  the  truth  in  an  attempt  to  prove 
that  his  play  was  earlier  than  Corneille's  Melite,  when  he  stated, 
in  1637,  that  he  wrote  his  play  nearly  seven  years  previously  to 
this  date,  it  becomes  worthy  of  note  for  the  history  of  the  French 
stage  in  the  early  decades  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Its  simi- 
larity with  Corneille's  early  works  cannot  be  explained,  in  that 
case,  by  influence  of  the  one  upon  the  other.  It  points  clearly  to 
a  common  source  of  inspiration  in  its  preference  for  contempor- 
aneity and  its  general  tone.  And  this  common  source  we  per- 
ceive in  the  novels  of  contemporary  life,  with  additional  color 
from  the  Ballets  and  from  the  satirical  literature. 

Another  play  represented  about  1630,  P.  du  Ryer's  Lisandre 
et  Caliste,  a  tragi-comedy,  of  which  the  sceiie  is  laid  in  modern 
France,  was  directly  inspired  by  a  novel  treating  of  contemporary 
events,  by  the  Histoire  tragi-comique  de  nostre  temps  by  d'Audi- 
guier  (1615).  It  affords  another  example  of  the  influence  of  the 
novel  in  the  direction  of  contemporaneity  of  material.  The  play 
is  too  overloaded  with  romantic  incident,  murder,  duels,  disap- 
pearances and  heroic  fights,  to  suggest  a  direct  transcript  from 
actual  life.  In  the  second  act,  however,  a  scene  is  found  between 
a  butcher  and  his  wife,  which  was  realistically  staged  in  the  Paris 
of  the  time  as  the  Memoire  de  Mahelot  shows :    "II  f aut  au  milieu 


du  theatre  le  petit  ehastelet  de  la  Rue  de  Sainct  Jacques  et  faire 
paroistre  une  rue  ou  sout  les  bouchers,  etc."    (73). 

In  1633,  Rayssiguier  publishes  his  La  Bourgeoise  ou  la  Prom- 
enade de  Saint-Cloud,  which  may  have  beeu  played  in  1631,  and 
preceded    Corneille's    GaUerie    du    Palais    (played    probably    in 
1632).    At  least,  it  may  be  considered  as  having  appeared  at  the 
same  time.     It  is  built  upon  a  complicated  intrigue,  engineered 
by  the  "bourgeoise"  who  desires  to  marry  either  one  of  the  two 
suitors  of  her  two  friends.     The    stage    scenery    is    specifically 
Parisian.     A  tendency  to    introduce    contemporary  stage-setting 
and,  in  a  number  of  cases,  Parisian  stage-setting  as  a  surround- 
ing for  contemporary  characters,  developed  in  the  thirties  of  the 
17th  century.     A  lost  play  by  La  Pineliere  was  called  La  Foire 
de  Sainct  Germain;  P.  du  Ryer  gave  his  Vendanges  de  Suresnes; 
Mareschal  his  Railleur,  Claveret's  Eaux  de  Forges  was  not  played 
following  the  Reponse  a  I' Amy  du  Cid  "par  la  discrete  crainte 
qu'ils  (les  comediens)  eurent  de  facher  quelques  personnes  de  con- 
dition  qui  pouvaient   reconnoitre  leurs  aveiitures  dans  la  repre- 
sentation de  cette  piece."     (74).     Another  play  of   Claveret,   a 
Place  Royale,  was  represented  in  June  or  July  1633   (75).   Bait. 
Baro  sketched  the  characters  of  a  lawyer  and  painter  in  his  lost 
work  La  Force  du  Destin.     The  anonymous  play  Le  matois  Mary 
ou  la  Courtizane  atirapee    (Com.    prose.    1634)    contains    details 
about  the  Parisian  life  of  the  time.    Discret's  Alizone  depicts  the 
lower  bourgeoisie-class;   Gillet  de  la   Tessonerie  derived   a   very 
indecent  comedy  from  the  satirical  novel  Francion,  of  Sorel,  while 
Desmarets  Saint  Sorlin  in    his    Les    Visionnaires    (1637)    makes 
sport  of  the  special  forms  of  literary  affectation  of  some  fops  and 
precieuses.   Rayssiguier  used  the  Thuileries  as  stage-setting  as  well 
as  the  Cinq  Autheurs  who  desired  to  please  Richelieu.    Corneille's 
Melite  was  one  of  the  first  examples  of  this  tendency  toward  con- 
temporaneity.    Since  we  may  reasonably  accept  that  he  was  ac- 
quainted with  the  literature  of  his  times,  the  numerous  novels  of 
contemporary  life  could  not  have  escaped  his  attention.     From 
their  example  and  from  the  theories  expounded  in  their  prefaces 
he  derived  his  tendency  toward  actuality  in  his  first  plays,  more 
than  from  a  direct  copy  of  the  existing  society  of  his  times.     The 
influence  which  they  exerted  upon  the  young  Corneille  as  well  as 
upon  other  playwrights  of  the  time  consisted   in   inspiring  them 
with  a  desire  of  bringing  into  their  pastoral  plots  elements  of 
actuality  and  verisimilitude.     And  from  1630  to  1636  Corneille, 


with  his  rather  positive  sense  of  life — even  positive  and  affirma- 
tive in  his  heroic  tragedies — followed  more  consistently  this  im- 
pulse than  his  fellow  playwrights. 


In  view  of  Thomas  Corneille's  and  Pontenelle's  testimonials, 
it  can  be  accepted  that  the  first  impulse  to  write  the  Melite  was 
due  to  a  love-adventure  of  Pierre  Corneille.  Yet,  while  compos- 
ing his  first  play,  he  took  color  from  the  contemporary  literature. 
Various  episodes  or  characters  of  it  denote  conscious  imitation  of 
stock  themes,  such  as  the  madness  of  Eraste  and  the  trick  of  the 
false  letters,  or  of  traditional  characters,  such  as  the  nurse.  As 
far  as  the  characterization  of  the  principal  heroes  and  heroines  is 
concerned,  his  imitation  seems  less  direct  and  more  in  the  nature 
of  an  influence:  his  heroes  resemble  closely,  it  is  true,  those  of 
the  pastoral  and  of  the  sentimental  novel,  but  they  seem  to  be 
specimens  of  the  same  type  rather  than  slavish  copies  derived 
from  a  direct  source.  A  more  conscious  effort  of  art  can  be  de- 
tected in  Corneille's  endeavor  to  depict  on  the  stage  contempor- 
ary life,  after  the  fashion  of  many  novels  of  the  time. 

Because  of  its  predominant  literary  inspiration  the  MeJite 
cannot  be  interpreted  entirely  as  an  auto-biographical  document : 
it  throws  more  light  on  the  fact  that  Corneille  was  well  acquaint- 
ed with  the  French  literature  of  his  day  than  on  his  life.  Its 
characters  cannot  be  identified  with  living  personages,  with  Cath- 
erine Hue,  Corneille  himself  and  his  sister,  Marie.  When  the 
purely  literary  elements  are  taken  out  of  the  play,  the  auto-bio- 
graphical side  is  seen  to  shrink  to  slender  proportions:  it  is  ])rob- 
able  that  the  part  relating  to  the  sonnet  "Apres  les  yeux  de 
Melite,  il  n'  y  a  rien  d'  adorable",  is  a  trace  of  Corneille's  actual 
experience,  for  Corneille  printed  this  sonnet  before  the  play,  and 
in  the  Melite  it  co)istitutes  a  kind  of  "hors  d'  oeuvre".  without 
any  direct  bearing  on  the  action. 

On  the  other  hand  the  literary  influences  upon  the  Melite 
here  discussed  prove  that  Corneille  was  well  aware  of  the  literary 
life  of  his  period,  even  at  his  debut,  and  that  he  cannot  be  con- 
ceived as  a  young  man,  who,  without  literary  preparation,  sud- 
denly began  to  write  an  original  comedy  merely  to  celebrate  his 
sweetheart's  charms.  His  first  work  appears  rather  as  a  natural 
outgrowth  of  the  influences  by  which  he  was  surrounded  in  Rouen, 
a  center  of  literary    activity    at    the    time.     From    this    point  of 


view,  too,  his  early  comedies  are  seen  to  be  connected  with  the 
literature  of  his  epoch,  which  largely  inspired  him  in  various  con- 
vental  episodes  and  in  his  early  conception  of  character.  No 
"abyss" — as  has  been  said — separates  Corneille  from  the  preced- 
ing literature.  The  first  blossoming  of  his  art  was  a  natural  phe- 
nomenon of  development,  due  to  his  milieu  and  his  natural  cur- 
iosity for  literature;  no  sudden  and  spontaneous  miracle  of  love. 

NOTES 

(1)  Bouquet. — Points  obscurs  et  nouveaux  de  la  vie  de 
Pierre  Corneille.  Ch.  VI. — Corneille  et  la  Cour  de  Louis  XIII 
aux  Eaux  de  Forges. 

(2)  La  Bruyere. — Bes  ouvrages  de  I'  esprit. — Ed.  Servais. 
1912,  I,  p.  139. 

(3)  Boileau. — Reflexions  critiques  sur  Long  in.  Ed.  Gidel, 
III,  363-64. 

(4)  Voltaire — Avis  sur  les  comedies  de  Corneille. — Oeu- 
vres.  1785,  vol.  51,  p.  447. 

(5)  La  Harpe — Lycee  ou  Cours  de  Lift.   1820,   V,    195. 

(6)  Nisard.— Hisf.  de  la  Litt.  jr.  II,  96. 

(7)  Abbe  d'  Olivet  cited  by  Le  Brun :  Corneille  devant 
trois  siccles. 

(8)  Nisard.— H/sf.  de  la  litt.  jr.,  II,  87. 

(9)  Roger  Le  Brun. — Corneille  devant  trois  siecles. — Intro- 
duction, p.  11. 

(10)  F.  Brunetiere.— f//sL  de  la  litt.  jr.  classique.    II,  173. 

(11)  1108;  Dictio7inaire  geograp.hique.     Word:    Rouen. 

(12)  Marty-Laveaux,  X. 

(13)  Nouvelles  de  la  Repuhlique  des  lettres — 1685.  p.  89. 
Eloge  de  M.  Corneille.  Marty-Laveaux  (I,  21  and  125)  attri- 
butes this  article  to  an  anonymous  author.  LT.  Meyer  in  the 
Zeitschrift  /.  Franz.  Spr.  und  Lit.  1885  (p.  119,  note  2)  attri- 
butes it  to  Fontenelle.  Cf.  Also  the  other  studies  on  Corneille  by 
U.  Meyer. 

(14)  Introduction  to  the  edition  of  Corneille 's  works  by 
the  abbe  Granet,  1738. 

(15)  Manuscript  in  the  library  of  Caen.  It  has  been  dated 
about  1785-90. 

(16)  Emm.  Gaillard — Nouveaux  details  sur  Pierre  Cor- 
neille, 1834. 

(17)  See  his  edition  of  Corneille,  I,  128. 


(18)  F.  Bouquet,  op.  cit.    62. 

(19)  Marie  Corneille  was  baptized  on  November  4,  1609. 
Cf.     Bouquet  op.  cit,  62. 

(20)  The  most  reliable  account  is,  of  course,  the  one  given 
by  Thomas  Corneille.  Fontenelle  was  born  at  Rouen  in  1657. 
Pierre  Corneille  left  that  city  for  Paris  in  1662,  when  his 
nephew  was  five  years  old.  Fontenelle  himself  confessed  that 
his  knowledge  of  the  historical  facts  of  Pierre  Corneille 's  life 
was  limited  and  uncertain.  Speaking  about  the  edition  of  Cor- 
neille 's  works  by  the  abbe  Granet,  in  1738,  he  said :  On  a 
receuilli,  avec  soin  et  avec  gout,  ces  differentes  pieces,  dont  on 
a  fait  un  volume  a  la  suite  de  son  Theatre,  reimprime  en  1738, 
et  je  ne  puis  mieux  faire  que  de  renvoyer  sur  toute  cette 
matiere.  ...  qu'  a  une  preface  judicieuse  et  bien  ecrite,  ou  1'  on 
trouvera  de  plus  des  traits  historiques  que  je  ne  savais  pas.  L' 
auteur  y  doute  d '  un  fait  que  j '  avals  avance ;  j '  avoue  que  son 
doute  seul  m'  ebranle ;  c'  est  un  fait  que  j'  ai  trouve  etabli  dans 
ma  memoire  comme  certain,  quoique  depouille  de  toutes  ses 
preuves,  que  j'  ai  eu  tout  le  loisir  d'oublier  parf aitement. " 
(Vie  de  Corneille  par  Fontenelle,  ed.  Belin,  p.  348  and  Hist,  de 
I'  Academie  Frangaise,  by  Pellison  et  d'  Olivet,  ed.  Livet  p. 
208.) 

(21)  See  my  articles  in  Modern  Philology:  A  common- 
place in  Corneille 's  Melite.  XVII,  141;  and  Corneille 's  early 
Friends  and  Surroundings,  XVIII,  361. 

(22)  For  a  list  of  translations,  see  Lee  Wolff. — The  Greek 
Romances  in  Elizahethan  Prose  Fiction,  1506. — Italian  transla- 
tion of  books  V-VIII  by  L.  Dolce. — 1560. — Complete  Italian 
translation  by  Angelo  Coccio. — 1597. — English  translation  by 
Wm.  Burton. 

(23)  Les  Devis  amoureux,  traduits  nagueres  de  grec  en 
latin  et  depuis  de  latin  en  frangois  par  I'  Amoureux  de  Vertu. — 
Paris.     G.  Corrozet.  1545. 

(24)  Lyon,  C.  Marchant.  1556.— Lyon  B.  Rigaud.  1573. 

(25)  See  H.  Carrington  Lancaster. — Two  lost  plays  by 
Alex.    Hardy. — Modern  Language  Notes.    May,  1912. 

(25a)  See  H.  Carrington  Lancaster — Pierre  du  Ryer, 
dramatist. 

(26)  G.  Reynier. — Le  roman  sentimental  avant  I'  Astree, 
p.  380 


(26a)  Corneille's  Illusion  Comique,  Mahelot's  Memoire,  and 
Rampalle's  Belinde.     Studies  in  Philology,  XVIII,  1. 

(27)  Probably  1628. 

(28)  A.  Feuillerat. — Jolm  Lyhj:  Contribution  a  I'  histoire 
de  la  Renaissance  en  Angleterre.  Cambridge,  1910,  pp.  74-75; 
274-75. 

(29)  Cf.  S.  Lee  Wolff. — A  source  of  Euphues.  Modern 
Philology,  April,  1910.  Also  his  book  "The  Greek  Romances  in 
Elizabethan  Prose."     Fiction.— 1912,  p.  248. 

(30)  Wilhelm  Grimm  {Kleinere  Schriften,  III),  Erwin 
Rohde  {Der  Griechische  Roman  and  seine  Vorlaufer,  p.  274), 
0nd  Gaston  Paris  {La  Hit.  jr.  au  Moyen  Age,  p.  51)  agree  that 
the  probable  source  of  the  Rival -friends  story  is  a  lost  Greek 
romance.  The  old  French  poem  Athis  et  Prophilias  by  Alex- 
andre de  Barnai  seems  to  be  based  on  it.  Rohde  and  others 
think  it  possible  that  Boccaccio  made  use  of  the  lost  Middle- 
Greek  romance  for  his  Tito  e  Gisippo.  A  curious  hypothesis  is 
set  up  by  Mr.  S.  L.  Wolff  about  Goldsmith's  possible  knowledge 
of  the  Greek  source  and  about  the  use  he  made  of  it  for  his 
rival  story :  Septiniius  and  Alcander. — See  L.  Wolff,  op.  cit.  p. 
263.  The  essential  features  of  the  story  are  found  in  Petrus 
Alphonsus  Disci plina  Clericalis  (circa  1106)  ;  in  the  Gesta  Ro- 
manorum;  in  Thomas  de  Cantimpre's  De  Proprietatibus  Apum 
(after  1251);  in  Nicolas  Pergamenus"  Dialogus  Creaturarum 
(13th  or  14th  century)  ;  etc. 

(31)  1535,  f.  211-227. 

(32)  By  Jean  Barbe  d'Orge.  1537. 

(33)  Phillippi  Beroaldi  Bononiensis  Poete  Carmen  de  Duo- 
bus  Amantibus  1530. — L'  hystoyre  de  Titus  et  Gesippus  et 
autres  petiz  oeuvres  de  Beroalde  Latin,  interpretes  en  Rime 
Frangoise  par  Francois  Habert.  1431. — Cf.  S.  Lee  Wolff  op.  cit. 
and  Violier  des  Histoires  Romaines  (translation  of  the  Gesta 
Romanorum).  Republished  in  the  Bibl.  Elzevirienne,  1858. — p. 
392-93. 

(34)  Astree. — Vol.  II,  story  I  and  II;  vol.  V,  story  5  and 
p.  373. 

(35)  Adapted  from  the  Astree:  Histoire  de  Celion  et  de 
Bellinde  (I,  story  10).    Played  about  1631,  printed  1634. 

(36)  Hardy. — Oeuvres. — Ed.  Stengel. 

(37)  Hardy's  Dorise  was  adapted  from  a  story  of  de  Ros- 


set's  Histoires  des  Atnans  volages  de  ce  temps  ou  sous  des  noms 
empruntez  sent  contenus  les  Amours  de  plusieurs  Princes,  Seig- 
neurs, Gentils-hommes,  et  autres  personnes  de  marque,  qui  out 
tronipe  lews  Maistresses,  ou  qui  ont  este  trompez  d'  elles.  1614 
( ?)  1616,  1619,  etc. 

(39)  1632.     Marsaii,  1m  Pastorale  dramatique. 

(40)  Bouquet. — op.  cit.     57-58. 

(41)  These  passages  were  erased  in  later  editions.  See 
the  footnotes  in  Marty-Laveaux's  edition. 

(42)  I,  8;  II,  3,  4;  III,  7,  9  ;  V,  1,  12. 

(43)  1635;  Cf.  Marsan,     La  Pastorale  dramatique. 

(44)  Mart3^-Lav.     I,  156. 

(45)  Such  a  scene  was  quite  general  and  conventional  in 
the  pastoral  plays  of  the  time.  It  is  also  found  in  novels.  The 
second  scene  of  the  first  act  of  T.  Tasso's  Aminta  was  an  influ- 
ential example.  To  Tasso's  influence  seems  due  that  in  Theocris, 
a  pastorale  of  P.  Troterel,  sieur  d'  Aves,  (1610,  Rouen,  Du  Petit- 
Val.)  the  joyful  Neridon  gives  to  his  friend  Theocris  the  same 
worldly-Axise  counsels. 

(46)  By  de  Nerveze.— 1601  (?)  1602.  Included  in  the  col- 
lective edition  of  de  Nerveze 's  stories:  Amours  diverses.  1606. 
(The  6th  story). 

(47)  Marty-Lav.     I,  139. 

(48)  Gaste.— La  querelle  du  Cid.  p.  309. 

(49)  See  my  article  in  Modern  Philology  (July,  1910)  :  A 
Commonplace  in  Corneille's  Melite:  fhe  madness  of  Eraste. 
The  lovers  of  the  novels,  of  the  pastoral  plays  and  of  the  tragi- 
comedies of  the  1600-1640  period  were  frequently  represented 
as  mad,  as  attempting  suicide,  or  rushing,  in  imagination, 
through  the  infernal  regions.  Mad  lovers  are  especially  preva- 
lent in  the  plays  which  appeared  about  the  time  that  the  Melite 
was  being  composed  or  soon  after  its  first  representation,  so 
that  they  may  have  been  acted  before  Corneille's  play.  The  ar- 
ticle refers,  for  similar  scenes,  to  Hardy's  Alcmeon  ou  la  ven- 
geance feminine,  Racan's  Bergeries,  Pichou's  Folies  de  Gar- 
denia, Mairet's  Sylvie,  Rotrou's  Hgpocondriaque,  Mareschal's 
Genereuse  Allemande,  Jacques  Le  Clerc's  Guerrier  Repenty,  de 
la  Croix's  Climene,  de  la  Morelle's  Philine  ou  I'  amour  contraire, 
the  anonymous  play  La  Folie  de  Silene  (1624),  du  Vicuget's  Ad- 
ventures de  Policandre  et  de  Basil ie. 


(50)  Les  Ocuvres  de  Philippes  Des  Fortes.  Lyon,  Rigaiid, 
1593.  f.  221. 

Other  forms  of  poetry  also  felt  the  influence  of  this  conven- 
tion. In  the  Franciade  of  Ronsard  the  madness  of  Clymene  is 
depicted.  Learning  that  Franeus  has  rejected  her  love  she  los- 
es her  reason  and  runs,  "hurlante  par  les  champs"  pursuing  a 
wild  boar  whom  she  takes  for  her  lover.  Another  instance  is 
to  be  found  in  Les  Chang ementz  de  la  Bergcre  Iris  by  J.  de 
Lingendes  (Paris,  1605)  where  Philene  having  lost  his  sweet- 
heart thus  narrates  his  experiences : 

Lors  m'egarant  en  mes  propos, 
Sans  nourriture  et  sans  repos, 
Et  repaissant  ma  fantaisie 
De  ce  qui  I'alloit  offensant, 
Mon  mal  tous jours  se  renforgant 
Enfin  je  tombe  en  frenaisie. 


Et  voyant,  mais  sans  jugement, 
Et  prive  de  tout  sentiment, 
Un  vieil  Nautonnier  pasle  et  sombre, 
Je  pensay  que  ce  fust  Charron, 
Qui  m'enlevait  sur  I'Acheron, 
Croyant  n'estre  plus  que  mon  ombre. 

These  conventional  madness  scenes  became  popular  in  the 
novels  of  which  Astree  may  be  taken  as  a  representative.  In  an 
episode  of  the  second  volume  {Histoire  de  Doris  et  Falemon) 
Adraste  becomes  insane  through  love  and  the  author,  d'Urfe, 
used  the  material  for  his  pastoral  play  Sylvanire.  In  the  His- 
toire de  Bosanire,  Celiodante  et  Rosileon  of  the  fourth  volume, 
Celiodante  has  the  same  misfortune.  And  this  episode  furnish- 
ed the  material  for  a  lost  play  of  Pichou,  Rosileon,  and  for  the 
CUomedon  of  Du  Ryer  which  was  first  played  under  the  name 
of  Rossyleon  (cf.  Carrington  Lancaster,  P.  Du  Ryer).  In  the 
seventh  volume  Azahyde  makes  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  mur- 
der Sylvandre.  The  father  of  Azahyde  dies  broken  hearted 
whereupon  the  latter  shuns  society  and  brooding  over  his  sins 
becomes  insane.  His  description  of  his  experience,  which  is 
typical,  shows  how  d'Urfe  appropriated  the  processes  to  be 
found  in  the  tragedies,  tragi-comedies  and  pastoral  plays  of  the 
time:   Ainsi  ne  trouvant  plus  de  paix  dans  la  societe,  je  recourus 


a  la  solitude,  et  pour  cela  je  me  retiray  en  une  maison  que  j'ay 
aux  champs,  mais  mon  peche  qui  me  suivoit  partout  ne  me 
donna  pas  plus  de  relasehe  la  qu'ailleurs;  au  contraire,  eomme 
si  le  ciel  eust  voulu  me  puiiir  par  mo^y-mesme,  il  permit  que 
durant  plus  d'un  mois  je  u'eus  jamais  de  pensees  que  celles  de 
ma  faute,  et  de  la  punition  que  j'en  pouvois  eneourir.  Ce  qui 
me  troubla  de  sorte,  que  je  recognus  sensiblement  que  peu  a  peu 
ma  raison  se  perdit  dans  la  Yiolence  de  ce  ressentiment.  Je 
combattis  quelque  temps  contre  la  naissance  de  ce  mal;  mais 
les  Dieux  qui  voulurent  appesantir  leurs  mains  sur  moy,  me 
firent  bien  tost  esprouver  qu'ils  pouvoient  donner  aux  mortels 
des  peines  plus  grandes  que  celles  qui  proviennent  de  la  perte 
de  la  raison.  et  de  fait,  une  nuict  que  j'estois  enferme  dans  ma 
chambre,  et  couche  dans  mon  lit,  j'ouys,  tout  a  coup,  ouvrir  la 
porte,  avec  un  bruit  espouventable,  et  soudain  que  j'eus  porte 
curieusement  la  vue  pour  apprendre  ce  que  c'estoit,  je  \ns 
Abariel  (his  father)  convert  de  sang  en  plusieurs  endroits  ten- 
ant dans  I'une  de  ses  mains  un  flambeau  allume,  et  dans  1 'autre 
un  coeur  perce  de  trois  ou  quatre  cousteaux ;  II  avoit  devant 
soy  I'une  des  Furies  et  les  autres  deux  a  ses  costez,  toutes  trois 
portants  un  Flambeau  comme  luy,  et  armee  dans  I'autre  main 
de  fouets  retors,  qui  se  separoient  en  diverses  pointes.  . .  .il  se 
retire  deux  ou  trois  pas,  et  faisant  un  certain  signe  aux  Furies 
qui  I'accompagnoient  aussitost  elles  se  saisirent  de  moy,  et 
cependant  que  I'une  me  faisoit  devorer  le  sein  par  des  serpents, 
I'autre  me  brusloit  de  son  flambeau,  et  la  troisiesme  me  dechir- 
ant  de  coups  sans  s'amolir,  sembloit  accroistre  sa  rage  par  mes 

cris  et  par  mes  plaintes Je  fus  dans  ce  tourment  plus 

d'une  heure,  apres  laquelle  un  si  grand  assoupissement  me 
saisit,  qu'il  dura  jusqu'  au  jour."     (Vol.  Y,  Story  10,  P.  345). 

Another  counterpart  of  the  situation  is  found  in  Du  Perier's 
novel,  La  Haine  et  l' Amour  d'  Arnoul  et  de  Clair emonde. 
(1600)  p.  10. 

Other  plays  with  madness  scenes  are:  Stratonice  ou  le 
malade  d'Amour — Tragi-eomedie  by  de  Brosse  (1644), — Antioc- 
lus  loves  his  mother-in-laAV  Stratonice.  He  feigns  madness  to 
obtain  her  hand.  Mairet's  tragedy  Roland  (1640)  imitates  the 
madness  of  Orlando  furioso.  The  tragedy  Arie  et  Petus,  ou  les 
Amours  de  Neron  by  Gilbert  (1659)  ends  with  the  remorse  and 
madness  of  Nero. 

(52)     La  Comedie  au  XVII e  siecle,  p.  32. 


(53)  Here  sliould  be  noted  that  the  platouic  love  theories 
played  an  important  pai-t  in  this  transformation.  Authors  like 
Castijrlione  in  his  Corffffiano,  Leo  Hebreo  in  his  Philosophie  d' 
Amour,  Cornelius  Ajirippa  in  his  Declamatio  de  nobilitate  et 
preecellentia  fcminei  sexus;  Heroet  in  his  Parfaicte  Amie,  each 
in  their  own  way,  had  brought  Platonism  down  from  the  clear 
regions  of  abstract  thought  to  practical  life.  Helped  by  the 
numerous  books  in  favor  of  women,  connected  with  the  eternal 
quarrel  of  the  sexes  in  French  ami  other  literatures,  they  had 
transformed  it  into  a  sort  of  society-science,  a  code  of  rules  gov- 
erning social  conduct  and  conversation.  Pastoral  novels  and 
plays,  being  a  mixture  of  things  real  and  things  ideal,  of  con- 
temporary "perfect  gentlemen"  and  of  imaginary  rustics,  were 
pervaded  by  the  same  atmosphere. 

(54)  The  date  of  this  book  is  given  as  1()14.  The  Privi- 
lege of  the  edition  Denys  Moreau,  Paris,  is  dated  July  31,  1616. 

(55)  It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  Corneille  would  have 
read  a  number  of  the  novels  and  plays  published  at  Rouen,  the 
more  that  one  of  the  principal  publishers  of  the  time,  Raphael 
du  Petit-Val,  was  his  friend.  He  must  have  been  acquainted, 
too,  with  the  works  of  the  various  authors  who  dedicated  verse 
to  him  for  his  La  Veuve.  We  also  know  the  titles  of  some  of 
the  books  which  he  received  as  prizes  in  the  school  of  the 
Jesuits  at  Rouen.  The  known  sources  of  his  later  Avorks  prove 
that  he  read  contemporary  Spanish  plays  and  ballads,  Amyot's 
translation  of  Plutarch,  and  various  Latin  historians. 

Martinenche  {La  Comedia  espagnola  en  France)  has  nothing 
to  say  about  Spanish  influence  upon  the  M elite.  Huszar  in  his 
Corneille  et  le  theatre  Espagnol  gives  a  list  of  very  general  fea- 
tures common  to  rorneille's  early  plays  and  the  Spanish  Comed- 
ia. But  he  cites  no  case  of  definite  similarity.  Corneille 's  first 
work  resembles  the  French  models  cited  in  this  study  much 
more  closely  in  both  spirit  and  detail  than  it  does  the  Spanish 
plays  to  which  Mr.  Huszar  refers  in  a  general  way. 

(56)  Marty-La veaux,  I,  139. 

(57  Cf.  my  study  on  Corneille' s  early  Friends  and  Sur- 
roundings.    Modern  Philology,  XVTTT,  p.  366, 

(58)  The  expression  "real  life"  is  not  taken  here  as  a  syn- 
onym for  "realism.""  It  means  that  the  characters  of  the  novel 
or  of  the  play  ai-e  taken  from  the  humanity  of  the  time,  and  not 
from  legend,  history  or  mythology. 


(59)  The  following  plays  are  inspired  by  the  Astree:  1. 
Rayssiguier,  Tragi-comedie  pastorale  on  les  amours  d' Astree  et  de 
Celadon  sont  meslees  a  celles  de  Diane,  de  Silvandre  et  de  Paris. 
2.  Maresehal — L'Inconstance  d'Hylas.  o.  La  Prise  de  MarciUif 
de  M.  (Durval?)  cited  by  the  Memoire  de  Mahelot  (fol.  41).  The 
play  is  lost.  4.  Auvray ;  La  Dorinde.  5.  Baro ;  La  Clorise.  6. 
Rayssiguier:  Palinice,  Circene  et  Florice.  7.  de  Scudery;  Lig- 
damon  et  Lidias.    8.    Cotignon :    Madonte.    9.   Auvray :  Madonte. 

10.  Piehou :  Rosileon  (mentioned  by  Tsnnrd)  lost  play.  11.  Du 
Ryer:  Rossylfon  (same  play  as  the  "Cleomedon"  Cf.  Carrington 
Lancaster:  P.  Du  Ryer,  p.  62-63),  12.  Mairet:  Chriseide  et 
Arimant.  13.  de  Scudery:  Orante.  14.  de  Scudery:  Eudoxe. 
15.  Abel  de  Sainte  Marthe:  Isidore  ou  la  pudicite  vengee.  16. 
Gillet  de  la  Tessonnerie:     La  Mort  de  Valentinien  et  d' Isidore. 

17.  Rayssiguier:     Alidor  et  Orante  ou  la  Celidee  ou  la  Calirie. 

18.  d'Urfe:  La  Sylvanire.  19.  Mairet:  La  Sylvanire.  20.  de 
Scudery :  Le  Vassal  genereux.  21.  de  Scudery : .  Le  Trompeur 
puny  ou  I'histoire  septentrionale. 

(60)  Les  Bergeries  de  Vesper  ou  les  amours  d^Antonin, 
Florelle  et  autres  Bergers  et  Bergeres  de  Placemont  et  Beausejour, 
par  le  sieur  Guillaume  Coste,  Gentilhomme  proveneal.  A  Paris — 
Rollin  Baragnes — J.  Bouillerot  1618." 

(61)  Clcoreste,  II,  f.  191. 

(62)  Preface  of  Les  Eveneniens  singuliers  1628. 

(63)  PP.  305,  462,  758.  Not  without  importance  too,  is  the 
influence  of  works  as  Fancan's  Tombeau  des  Romans  1626;  the 
Berger    Extravagant    and    Barclaj^'s    Euphormion.      See    Livre 

11,  chap.  3.  .  .  .Tu  verras  comme  I'autheur  se  moque  de  quelques 
uns  qui  estiment  si  fort  ce  que  les  anciens  ont  fait  qu'ils  ne  pen- 
vent  s'imaginer  que  ceux  d'  a  present  puissent  mieux  faire  ou 
mieux  dire  (Translation  of  Nau.  1626). 

(64)  1664. 

(65)  Examen  de  M elite — Marty-Laveaux  I,  138. 

(66)  P.  Troterel:     L' Amour  triompJiant,  1615. 

(67)  Tallemant :  Historiettes — Vigneul — M.dr\i\le,  Melanges 
d'Histoire  et  de  Litterature,  1725,  I.  177. 

(68)  This  play  was  printed  in  1635,  but  played  in  1629  or 
1630  as  shown  by  the  Avis  au  Lecteur  where  the  author  refers  to 
the  applause  which  his  play  "a  receus  sur  un  theatre  de  cinq 
ans."     In  the  dedicace  to    Henry    de    Lorraine,    he    says    about 


Hylas:  "Qu'il  vienne  pare  de  ses  graces  naturelles  qui  I'ont  fait 
souvent  admirer  sur  le  theatre  afin  de  vous  aborder  plus  honor- 
ablement  des  applaudissements  qu'il  a  re^eus  de  tout  Paris  et 
d'une  vieille  reputation  continuee  de  cinq  a  six  ans." 

(69)  Cfr.  Marsan — La  Pastorale  dramatique,  Chapter  VII. 

(70)  Ihid,  Ch.  VI  and  VII. 

(71)  Cf.  Ballets  et  Masoarades  de  Cour  de  Henri  III  a 
Louis  XIV — published  by  Paul  Lacroix,  1870,  6  volumes,  Henry 
Prunieres;  Le  Ballet  de  cour  en  France  avant  Benserade  et  Lully, 
1914.  H.  Carrington  Lancaster:  Relations  between  French  Plays 
and  Ballets  from  1581  to  1650.  Publications  of  the  Modern  Lan- 
guage Association,  XXXI,  No.  3. 

(72)  This  play  was  printed  in  1636,  according  to  the  Freres 
Parfaict.  They  state  the  author  said  in  his  preface:  '*I1  est 
sorti  de  ma  plume,  il  y  a  plus  de  sept  ans."  M.  Linthillac  testi- 
fies that  he  does  not  know  of  any  edition  earlier  than  1637  (Paris 
Targa).  The  text  referred  to  higher  reads  there:  '*I1  est  sorti 
de  ma  plume  il  y  a  pres  de  sept  ans."  The  play  must  therefore 
be  dated  1629  or  1630— Cf  Linthillac :  Histoire  de  la  Comedie  au 
XVII,  Siecle.  p.  8. 

(73)  Cf.  The  important  critical  republication  of  Mahelot's 
Memoire  by  Professor  Carrington  Lancaster.  Paris  Champion, 
1921 ;  and,  for  the  enumeration  of  plays  in  this  paragraph  his 
study :  Relations  between  French  plays  and  Ballets  from  1581 
to  1650.  Publications  of  the  Modern  Language  Association  of 
America.     XXXI,  No.  3. 

(74)  Gaste. — La  querelle  du  Cid.  p.  304. 

(75)  Corneille  was  accused  by  Claveret  of  having  begun  his 
Place  Royale  "Des  que  vous  sutes  que  j'y  travaillois"  Lettre  du 
sieur  Claveret  a  Corneille.    Gaste,  op.  cit.  305. 


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